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PKIOSKNTED BY 



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UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 



THE STATUS OF COUNTY 

TEACHERS' INSTITUTES 

IN PENNSYLVANIA 



BY 
CARMON ROSS 



A THESIS 

PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL 

FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN EDUCATION 



fHILADELPHU. PA 
1922 



i 

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 

THE STATUS OF COUNTY 

TEACHERS' INSTITUTES 

IN PENNSYLVANIA 



BY 

CARMON ROSS 



A THESIS 

PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL 

FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN EDUCATION 



PHILADELPHIA, PA. 

1922 






Gift 
University 

Bm J4 I8i$ 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

The writer takes this opportunity of publicly expressing his 
appreciation for the generous and professional encouragement given 
him in carrying on this investigation by the county superintendents 
in Pennsylvania, by the thousands of teachers answering the several 
questionnaires, by the principals and superintendents in their ready 
responses, and to the Department of Public Instruction of Pennsyl- 
vania for the access given to data unavailable in printed form at the 
time of writing. Thanks are due the many busy professional men 
and women who have given their judgment and experiences concern- 
ing the problem studied. To all these and to others who have 
in any way contributed to this study, the writer is deeply indebted 
and gladly expresses his thanks. 



CONTENTS 

Introduction — Purpose and Method of Study VI 

Chapters 

I. Historical Origins of Teachers' Institutes 1 

II. Aims, Purposes, and Ideals of Teachers' Institutes 21 

III. Status of the Organization of Teachers' Institutes 43 

IV. Status of the Institute Program and Personnel 76 

V. a. The County Teachers' Institute as an Agency in the 

Improvement of Teachers in Service 88 

b. As an Agency in its Influence on the Public 113 

VI. Status of its Finances 119 

VII. General Status of Institutes in the U. S 135 

VIII. Summary: 

a. Findings 149 

b. What Shall be Done? 154 

Bibliography 160 

Appendix: 

a. Questionnaire to County Superintendents 161 

b. Questionnaire to Teachers 164 

c. Questionnaire to Dist. Supts. and Supervising Principals 165 

d. Inquiry to Departments of Public Instruction 166 

e. Inquiry to prominent educators 167 

f. Follow-up inquiry to teachers 167 



INTRODUCTION 

The present study is an attempt to determine the efficiency of 
County Teachers' Institutes in Pennsylvania. That there is a need 
for determining whether or not the county institute is functioning or 
whether it is contributing materially to the actual improvement and 
present needs of the teaching profession in Pennsylvania, can be 
readily ascertained by an examination of the literature bearing on 
Institutes, not only in Pennsylvania but thruout the United States. 
It is beyond the purpose of this investigation to review this literature 
or to quote from it to any greater extent than will shed light on our 
problem. 

Two outstanding studies on "Teachers Institutes" are those 
by Smart in 1885,^ and by Ruediger in 1911.^ These are both national 
in scope. The former is a valuable collection of data and judgment 
that constitute a veritable brief for the institute. The latter study 
considers the institute as an agency in the improvement of teachers 
in service. It was in this study that the further value of institutes 
was begun to be questioned, tho even in Smart's "Circular of Infor- 
mation"^ we see striking evidences of warning and doubt. Com- 
missioner of Education Eaton in submitting Smart's comprehensive 
survey used this significant sentence: 

The aims, purposes, and methods of conducting these institutes in the several 
states are exceedingly diverse. It is evident that the institutes as a whole have been a 
means of great good and have probably been worth all they have cost; but it is also 
clear that, from lack of thorough organization and professional management, they 
have produced only a part of the good results possible. The facts presented in this 
report show that institutes may not only be valueless practically, but a positive 
source of mischief to the teachers and to the schools.^ 

A quotation from Ruediger's study^ shows further evidence of doubt 
as to the efficacy of the institutes. After giving several criticisms 
of the institute, Ruediger comments as follows: 

' Smart, Circular of Information No. 2 — 1885, U. S. Bureau of Education. 
^ Agencies for the Improvement of Teachers in Service — Ruediger, Bulletin No. 
3 — 1911, U. S. Bureau of Education. 
' Smart — op. cit. 

* Commissioner of Education — Report 1885. 

* Ruediger — op. cit. 

VII 



VIII COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

If these arraignments of institutes were isolated examples, they might be passed 
by unnoticed, but of late years expressions of a similar nature have become suflGtciently 
frequent to arrest attention. The feeling is beginning to spread that institutes have 
served their usefulness and should be discontinued. 

It is no doubt true that institutes, as they are stiU usually conducted, are an 
anachronism. They arose in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, before 
the normal schools had made such headway and when summer schools for teachers 
were unknown, to supply a distinct need in the training of teachers. 

One of the severest of the critics of the institute is Dr. Homer 
H. Seerley, of the State Normal School, Cedar Falls, Iowa, who has 
arraigned the "institute system" as a "makeshift," and "not original- 
ly intended to be a permanent part of the educational system of any 
state. . . . The actual results claimed for teachers' institutes are 
usually greatly overestimated by those who conduct them. . . . 
They have no way to determine the facts, or to summarize the 
opinion of teachers, and the estimates they make are more or less 
visionary and unreliable. . . . The practical value of this system 
of work, is, therefore, much in doubt to candid observers. The 
expense of the method is serious when . . . the impossibility of 
accomplishing the purpose planned (is) considered."^* 

In Monroe's "Cyclopedia of Education" we find this comment 
apropos of the growing questioning of the institute's efficiency: 

The system of institutes has been severely criticized within recent years. The 
chief objection is that it is an anachronism. It had a place when there were no facili- 
ties for the training of teachers. But since the estabUshment of normal and summer 
schools it merely connives at inadequately trained teachers in attempting to do 
training work for about five days in a year.^ 

Button and Snedden'' thus comment: 

The conspicuous defects of the institute are its failure to improve general culture 
appreciably or significantly to affect special scholastic attainments in the fields in 
which the teachers work. To a great extent, also, the average institute fails in the 
matter of method, both general and special, since the instructors are not sufficiently 
close to the problems with which the teachers deal, and there is small opportunity 
for demonstration. — The consequences are that many of their attempts at inculcating 
principles fail because they are unable to take into account the conditions under 
which rural teachers work — and these constitute one-half the teachers of the country. 

fia Seerley, "Practical Value of the Institute System," "Educational Review," 
Nov. 1908, pp. 356-73. 

« Monroe, "Cyclopedia of Education," Vol. 2, pp. 467-69. 

"> Button and Snedden, "Administration of Pubhc Education in the U. S.," Rev. 
Ed. pp. 277-84. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA IX 

Continuing the same authorities say: 

The institute seems to have an established place so long as the conditions which 
now prevail in the teaching force — lack of training, lack of maturity, and extreme 
mobility on the part of many teachers — shall continue. Therefore, the problem of 
improving it is a vital one. 

A recent writer has thus stated his view of the institute: 

Tho the usefulness of teachers' institutes is now largely a thing of the past because 
of their utter inadequacy under present conditions, they were a nourishing half-loaf in 
those early days when otherwise there would have been no pedagogical bread.* 

This view probably summarizes the attitude of our most recent 
educational writers. 

In view of the fact that this inquiry pertains mainly to Pennsyl- 
vania institutes, the defence on which our county institutes are 
placed, is admirably illustrated by a few excerpts from city and dis- 
trict superintendents in the state. A few of these are:® 

Institutes as now conducted in our counties are a farce — oriental, dead, lack 
definiteness, are a conglomeration of nothingness. 

They have outlived their original purpose. The reformer is needed. I believe 
visits to good schools would be of more profit to the teachers. 

The practical value of these meetings as at present constituted, is almost negli- 
gible. 

This whole thing of institutes has grown so disgusting to me so far as results are 
concerned that I cannot see any reason for perpetuating this parasite upon the pro- 
fession. 

I don't think there is any aim or purpose except a blind, antiquated fulfilling of a 
section of the school code. 

On the other hand, the protagonist of the Institutes beginning 
with Barnard and Mann, are legion. As far back as 1852 Barnard 
said:!*^ 

The value of this class of meetings — the institute — both to teachers and the 
communities where they are held, is universally acknowledged, and not an intimation 
has reached me from any quarter, that they should be abandoned. (This was 13 

* Ross L. Finnej', "The American Public School," 1921, p. 123. 
' Selected from replies to questionnaire to County and District Superintendents, 
q. V. in Appendix. 

'" Barnard, "American Journal of Education," 7th Annual Report, p. 314. 



X COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

years after inaugurating an institute in Conn, and 6 years after the first teachers' 
meeting under the name "Institute" in New York.) 

As will be seen in Chapter I, "Historical Origins of Institutes," with- 
out exception educational writers and authorities were a unit in 
their advocacy of the Institute as a means to improve teachers and 
to stimulate an apathetic public. Without exception, all the state 
superintendents of public instruction in Pennsylvania from A. G. 
Curtin, thru Hickock, Wickersham, Higbee, and Schaeffer were 
firm believers in the Institute. Supt. Curtin said in 1856: 

The scarcity of competent teachers is the great want of our schools. The Teachers' 
Institute, recognized by public authority, and encouraged by a small appropriation 
for each county, is beyond aU question, the means to be relied on for this purpose 
(training of teachers), and is accordingly unhesitatingly and earnestly recommended.^^ 

In 1857 Supt. Curtin again said: 

The County Institute, properly conducted, is undeniably the great lever in the 
hands of the county superintendent to lift the school system from the dead level 
of apathy and indifference ; the most effective and powerful agency at his command to 
reach and arouse public opinion, vivify the profession, and energize the administration 
of the system.i^ 

Supt. Hickock eloquently voiced his belief in the County Institute 
when in his annual report he said in part: 

The value of the institute as provisional schools for instruction in the theory and 
practice of teaching, for the interchange of teachers' opinions and experiences, and in 
the cultivation of a fraternal esprit de corps that should inspire and elevate the pro- 
fession, has been heretofore presented in conclusive terms, which experience has 
abundantly confirmed.^^ 

Thirty-one years after Institutes had been legalized in Pennsylvania, 
Dr. Higbee, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, said in his 
annual report: 

Our county institutes, as partial aids to our Normal Schools, have been doing 
excellent service in promoting the professional knowledge and zeal of teachers. In 
no other state of the Union, perhaps, have county institutes awakened such general 
and sympathetic interest in educational matters." 

" Curtin, Report of Department of Public Instruction, 1856, p. 14. 
12 Curtin, Report of Department of Public Instruction, 1857, p. 24. 
" Hickock, Report of Department of Public Instruction, 1858, pp. 13-14. 
" State Report, 1881. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA XI 

Both Smart^^ and Ruediger'^'' give numerous expressions of ap- 
proval for the work of the Institutes. Smart, after commenting 
upon the poorly trained rural school teacher, says: 

This wide spread and lasting condition of this explains the necessity of supporting 
and maintaining teachers' institutes in addition to Normal Schools.'* 

This same authority and investigator after giving a brief summary 
of the uses of the Institutes and of the limitations of the Normal 
Schools and Normal Institutes (not to be confused with County 
Institutes), gives a strong endorsement as follows: 

All these and many other uses of the institute have been tested since it was 
first introduced by Dr. Barnard. Without doubt it is destined to an equally useful 
and varied career in different parts of the country, new and old, during the future.'^ 

But all the praise for the Institute and its work is not all as old 
and as far back as 1885. In 1889 John Hancock of Ohio placed the 
professional influence of teachers' institutes above that of Normal 
Schools on the ground that they reached more teachers.^** The Insti- 
tute Manual prepared by Supt. Shawkey of West Virginia in 1910 
states that while "there is a disposition on the part of some thinkers 
to do away with this phase of school work and substitute summer 
school work ..." yet, ''inasmuch as it has stood the test for 
many years, it fills a peculiar mission in our scheme." 

"The County Institute" was the subject of discussion before the 
County Superintendents' department at the meetings of the Penn- 
sylvania State Educational Association at Erie in June, 1910, and at 
Harrisburg in December, 1910. Co. Supt. Robt. C. Shaw of West- 
moreland County in a paper^" read before the department, said 
among other things: 

We do not hesitate to say that in our opinion the most capable institute instruct- 
ors of America are brought to Pennsylvania institutes, and because of this every 
teacher of the state has the opportunity of hearing the best and most advanced thought 
along educational lines. . . . 

At no other time in the year is there so much interest taken locally in the work 
of the public school as during the week of the county institute. 

'* Smart, op. cit. 

" Ruediger, op. cit. 

" Smart, op. cit. p. 10. 

** Proceedings of Department of Superintendence, N. E. A. 1889, p. 71. 

" Shaw, "The Annual Institute," Pa. School Journal, Aug. 1910, p. 103. 



XII COUNTY TEACHERS' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

In this paper Supt. Shaw quotes Dr. Brumbaugh, then Supt. of 
Philadelphia and later Governor of the state, to the effect that in the 
Pennsylvania Institute "we have a week of professional uplift which 
is of great value to the school system as a whole. I trust we shall not 
depart from it." Continuing Supt. Shaw quotes Dr. D. J. Waller, 
then Principal of the Bloomsburg State Normal School: 

Teachers' institutes as now conducted in this state are of inestimable value in their 
effect upon the teachers and directors immediately interested and upon the cause of 
education thruout the length and breadth of the Commonwealth. I know of no evils 
that should be charged to them as "results." 

Supt. L. E. McGinnes, of Steelton in his discussion of the County 
Institute before the department's meeting at Harrisburg in Dec. 
1910 had this to say among other things r^" 

Without doubt, this annual gathering is the great educational red-letter rally 
week of the year, and will remain so in Pennsylvania as elsewhere, as long as teachers 
and superintendents need to grow and as long as wholesome public sentiment needs 
to live. Institute spells vacation to pupUs, pleasure and profit to patrons, and it ought 
always to spell an inspiring, professional uplift to teachers. ... 

The State of New York abolished Teachers' Institutes in 1911. 
Four years before the Institute was abolished "Teachers' Institutes" 
was an important topic of discussion at the "52nd Annual Meeting of 
the New York State Association of School Commissioners and 
Superintendents" held at Syracuse, November 6-8, 1907. In view 
of the fact that the Legislature of the State within a few years voted 
to abolish the Institute, it may be of interest at this point to quote 
briefly from Dr. Sherman Williams, Institute Conductor. After 
discussing the inadequacy of supervision as then conceived, and 
lamenting the fact that "there are lecturers of educational topics, 
whom the great mass of teachers never hear," Dr. Williams gave this 
tribute to the institute, so soon to be discontinued in his own state: 

The Institute is the one attempt that has reached the great mass of the teachers. 
It is stUl the most helpful means of reaching and influencing the mass of teachers, the 
only one that has had sufficient vitality to last for more than 60 years. There is a 
common but mistaken notion, that institutes are chiefly valuable for teachers of meager 
training and limited experience. Here as elsewhere it is true that "to him that hath 

2" McGinnes, "The Instructor and the Institute," Pa. School Jour. Mar. 1911, p. 

457. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA XIII 

shall be given." The more a teacher brings to an institute, the more he gets from it 
if the institute is what it ought to be.-' 

A striking contrast to this judgment is that uttered by Co. Supt. 
John F. Carr, of Marion County, Indiana, a state where the Institute 
is still in existence and is carefully controlled by the state: 

The County Teachers' Institute in Indiana remains practically unchanged from 
what it was at its origin. Surely, it did not leap into existence fully developed and 
perfected. On the contrar>% it is full of defects, and if it were not for an indifferent 
legislature that has control of it, it would long ago have abolished itself or have made 
radical reforms. ^^ 

In contrast to the action of New York in abolishing Institutes was 
the action of the Education Commission of Illinois, composed of seven 
prominent educators of the State, whose duty was "to make a thor- 
ough investigation of the common school system of Illinois" and 
"to make a comparative study of such other systems as may seem 
advisable and to submit — a report including such suggestions, recom- 
mendations, revisions, additions, corrections and amendments as 
the commission shall deem necessary. "^^ This commission issued its 
report in a number of bulletins, one of which (No. 5) covered a very 
thorough and nation wide investigation of Teachers' Institutes. 
This commission recommended a County System of Institutes, on a 
modified New York and Pennsylvania type, i.e., a state directed 
system with institute agents, and compulsory attendance and pay 
for teachers. This suggested plan was never approved by the Legis- 
lature. The interesting part of this notable report on Institutes is 
the fact that Institutes were recommended to be continued. 

Another report that mention must be made of is that of the 
Commission on Rural Schools authorized by the Pennsylvania 
State Educational Association in 1913 and which made its report in 
1914. One phase of this report^* dealt with Institutes. This commis- 
sion did not recommend the abolishing of the Institute. A few ex- 

" N. Y. State Education Dept. Bulletin, July 15, 1908. 

*^ Carr, "Symposium County Teachers' Institute — "The Educator Journal," Nov. 
1907, p. 134. 

23 Illinois School Report, 1908-10, p. 259. 

** Commission Rural Schools, Report Pa. State Ed. Association Proceedings, 
1914, p. 38. 



XIV COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

tracts from this report will suffice to show that the commission 
believed in the Institute : 

"The County Institute is a most valuable instrument for improving the educa- 
tional work of the state." 

"Institutes still have a place in Pennsylvania education. In scattered communities 
they call the teachers together for some days, create a soUdarity of opinion, give 
inspiration and some good ideas that afterwards affect teaching." 

"It is difficult to exaggerate the value and importance of the Pennsylvania system 
of institutes to the teachers of the commonwealth." 

"The value of the institute is a necessity to the growth and professional life of the 
teachers." 



"As an educational agencv the institute is a necessity." 



It is very evident from the excerpts given that sharp differences 
of opinion have existed for many years as to the real status of the 
institute; at present when the agencies for improving teachers are 
so numerous, there is a genuine doubt as to whether or not the insti- 
tute functions. But thus far we have had nothing but judgment, in 
most cases, biased, because of the interests represented. To arrive 
at a scientific determination of the work of the County Institute, 
removed as far as possible from personal judgment and bias, is the 
purpose of this investigation. That it is difficult to measure the work 
of the institute, is obvious. Even with the standardized tools we 
have to-day for measuring the products of the school room, we 
frequently find divergence of results. So far as the investigator is 
aware, there is no ready and infallible tool to measure in a concrete 
way the actual results of the institutes as they exist to-day. No 
extensive effort has, therefore, been made to follow up any group of 
teachers to determine whether or not their work in the schoolroom 
was better done after the institute. This would be the ideal way to 
measure results. Other methods, however, have been employed, 
which should assist in evaluating the institutes. Much effort has been 
put on the problem of determining the aims and functions of Insti- 
tutes in the past, and contrasting these with the present day needs of 
teachers. These aims and purposes are, wherever possible, expressed 
in terms of achievement. This, it seems, is the natural operation of 
the simplest law of efficiency — the squaring of the aim or purpose 
with the product. These aims and purposes have also been exam- 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA XV 

ined with the object in view of determining their appropriateness 
and sufficiency in the light of current educational practices and 
needs. 

The study will reveal that one of the outstanding aims of the 
institute has been and should be the training of teachers in service, 
tho this aim is not always recognized or granted. The study will 
also attempt to show that the institute must be an agency to improve 
teachers in service, if, as in Pennsylvania, it should continue as an 
institution supported by public funds. It will further be shown 
that historically, at least, the institute had another very impor- 
tant aim, viz., the formulation of a healthy public sentiment for the 
improvement of the profession of teaching and for the wider and 
more adequate support of public education. In a general way, too, 
but not as a main problem, this investigation will contrast teacher 
training facilities in 1850 with those of the present day. Essentially, 
the continuance or discontinuance, the improvement or the change 
of the type or organization of the County Teachers' Institute, is a 
concern of the teacher training agencies of the state. It is proper, 
then, that the present day institute be considered, also, in the light 
of the possible role it might play in the teacher training program of 
the state. 

The method employed in this investigation is a combination of 
the historical with the questionnaire and statistical. The former 
will furnish thru original and secondary sources the aims, character, 
and early work and organization of the first institutes, and their 
gradual evolution to the present status. The latter method at- 
tempts thru the judgment and experience of teachers, supervising 
principals, county and district superintendents, and state depart- 
ments of public instruction, to determine the present status of 
institutes as to their aims, organizations, preferences, values, pro- 
grams, etc. Replies have been received to questionnaires devised 
for each group from nearly 3000 teachers in 12 counties and four 
districts; 66 county superintendents in the state, 283 district super- 
intendents and supervising principals; from 46 out of 48 State De- 
partments of Public Instruction; and from many prominent educators 
in many states. 

The results of the replies to these questionnaires^^ are used pri- 
marily to justify or reject certain conclusions. These reactions from 

25 Questionnaires are given in the Appendix, q. v. 



XVI COUNTY TEACHERS INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

all these factors are interpreted thruout the chapters and shed an 
important light on certain phases of the problem. 

A very important part of this study is the analysis of the pro- 
grams and the personnel of the county institutes in Pennsylvania 
for 1919 and 1920. This is an attempt to determine the content of 
the instruction given, the personnel of the instructors, in the light 
of the present needs and tendencies in the training of teachers in 
service, and in consideration of what the present demands. It is 
upon this phase of the investigation that the achievement of the 
aims of the institute depends. The discussion of costs will also play 
an important part in the investigation. 

The concluding chapter summarizes the results of the study and 
will sum up not only the main findings, but will endeavor to formu- 
late a constructive policy in the matter of Teachers' Institutes in 
Pennsylvania. 



CHAPTER I 

Historical Origins Teachers' Institutes 
Part of Larger Movement 

Historically, the growth and development of Teachers' Institutes 
in the U. S., and particularly in Pennsylvania, constitute an impor- 
tant link in the progressive evolution of the public school system. 
The retrospect in this chapter is necessarily brief, but it is essential 
for a proper understanding of the real mission and function of Insti- 
tutes in the past, and the possible policy to be adopted regarding 
them. Teachers' Institutes are intimately connected with the strug- 
gle in the U. S. for establishing the public schools on an adequate 
basis thru improvement of the training of teachers by the founding 
of Normal Schools, the creation of the County Superintendency, 
and, therefore, supervision and the molding of a healthy sentiment 
for free schools It must not be forgotten that the Institute was a 
step in this upward movement. Ruediger^ has well pointed out that, 
"this beginning of institutes and the displacement of teachers' con- 
ventions by them are of interest in this connection because these 
data seem to give us the key to the ultimate outcome of institutes. 
To rail against institutes in a general way does little good. What is 
needed is an adequate conception of their origin, and with this infor- 
mation at hand it may be possible to infer something in regard to 
their destiny." Hence, the purpose of this chapter is not to delve 
deeply into the origin of institutes, but to give that historical back- 
ground which will throw light on our own problems, and especially 
on the aims, purposes, and functions of teachers' institutes. 

It cannot be said with any degree of certainty when institutes 
first came into existence. This is in a large measure due to a confusion 
in the use of terms, as will be shown later. Ruediger^ and Smart,' 
seem to agree that the first teachers' institutes held in America was 
October 1839, when Henry Barnard, Secretary of the State Board of 
Education of Connecticut, "assembled twenty-six young men to- 

1 Ruediger, Op. Cit. p. 32. 
^ Ruediger, Op. Cit., p. 10. 
' Smart, Op. Cit., p. 35. 



2 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

gather and formed them into a class They were taught for six 
weeks by able lecturers and teachers and had the advantage of 
observation in the public schools of Hartford.* Continuing, this 
same source says: "In 1846 a convention of teachers was held, 
at which more than two hundred and fifty assembled. The exercise 
consisted of instruction and continued through five days." It will 
be noticed that the term, "institute" is not used in this report. Fur- 
thermore, it should be noted that the term "convention" is used, 
and that the meeting of 1839 continued six weeks, whereas the 
"convention" of 1846 only 2 weeks. 

Horace Mann in his report for 1844-45 says: 

They (institutes) originated in the State of New York in 1843, and they have so 
commended themselves to the friends of education that they have been held during 
the current season in more than half the counties of New York, and in the States of 
Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. 

Mann thus gives the claim for the first teachers' institute to be held 
under that name to New York. Confirming this claim is this extract 
from an ofl&cial volume issued by the Education Department of the 
State of New York:^ 

The first teachers' institute ever held in this State (New York), and probably 
the first ever held in this country, was organized at Ithaca on the 4th of April, 1843. 
. . . The Ithaca institute was held by County Superintendent J. S. Denman of Tomp- 
kins County, and was in session for two weeks. Supt. Denman was the originator of 
the system to give instruction to teachers under the plan of teacher's institutes, which 
has become quite general throughout the country. 

Development of Institutes from Teachers^ Associations 

There is little doubt that the first school for teachers or "insti- 
tutes" as State Supt. of Conn, in his report of 1848 called them, had 
their first practical origin in the State of Conn, in 1839, originated 
by Henry Barnard, and that a meeting of this kind first called "insti- 
tute" was held by Supt. Denman in New York in 1843. The one 
important link that seems to be overlooked, however, is the incon- 
trovertible fact, already alluded to by Ruediger,^ that "institutes," 
whether under that name or any other name, were the logical develop- 
ment from teachers' conventions or associations, held first among 

* "Agencies Employed in Training Teachers," p. 285. Document issued by State 
Department of Public Instruction, Albany, N. Y. 

^ Ruediger, Op. Cit. 

* MUler, Monograph "History of Educational Legislation in Ohio," pp. 106, 
107, 108. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 3 

private school teachers for social or convivial purposes, and then 
gradually assuming the character of voluntary local organizations 
whose purpose was the molding of public sentiment and the welfare 
of teachers. This fact has been very clearly established by a recent 
"History of Educational Legislation in Ohio from 1803 to 1850."'^ 
In a chapter in this history on "The Training of Teachers" we find 
this statement: 

It was through the activity of voluntary associations of teachers and friends of 
education that the first efforts were made to raise the standard of the teaching profes- 
sion. As early as 1829 such an association had been meeting regularly in Cincinnati 
for the discussion of educational problems, and at a general convention to which 
friends of education thruout the Mississippi Valley were invited an association was 
formed called the Western College of Teachers. . . . 

Continuing this same chapter says that in 1834 — five years before 
the first institute in Connecticut, and nine before the one held in 
New York State — "an act was passed to incorporate 'The Teachers^ 
Institute.^ The preamble and first section are of interest and show 
an advanced educational sentiment on the part of the incorporators 
and a definite attempt to meet the needs for better trained teachers, 
and illustrate the general legislative willingness to legalize educa- 
tional effort through incorporation." This act provided "that there 
shall be established and instituted — a college for the instruction of 
candidates for professional school teachers, and for the purpose of 
qualifying such teachers in the best manner to instruct and govern 
schools, etc." This plan of the Ohio pioneers anticipated that of 
Carter in Mass. by five years, tho their plan did not materialize. 
It was worthy of note, however, that the so-called "teachers associa- 
tions" had gradually developed into "Teachers' Institutes," and that 
these "Institutes" were legally transformed into a "college of teach- 
ers." The cycle seems to be complete — meetings of teachers, asso- 
ciations, institutes, college or normal school for teacher training. 
True, the "college for the instruction of candidates for professional 
school teachers" did not go beyond the stage of incorporation, but 
the vision and controlling motive were already there. The close rela- 
tion between institutes and teachers associations is further illus- 
trated by the fact that even Henry Barnard speaks of the institute 
as a convention: "During the year, nine Institutes or Conventions 
of Teachers have been held in different parts of the State (Conn.), 
etc." 1. In fact, the very name — "teachers' institute" seems to 

^ Ruediger, Op. Cit. p. 91. 



4 COUNTY TEACHERS INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

have been adopted from the name of "The American Institute of 
Instruction," organized as a voluntary teachers' association, in 1830 
at Boston, an association which still exists and which meets annually. 
In considering the origin of the institute in Penna., it can be shown 
very clearly that teachers' associations grew into institutes, and that 
in turn institutes took over most of the ordinary functions of the 
parent organizations, in addition to the attempts to train teachers 
professionally. To quote Ruediger:^ 

"When teachers Institutes arose in the nineteenth century they displaced many 
township and county teachers' associations. This was regretted by Horace Mann, 
but he thought that the loss would be more than counterbalanced by the greater pro- 
fessional merits of the institute. If, however, the institute failed to provide for the 
spontaneous associations of teachers, one would expect that in the natural course of 
events these voluntary conventions would again rise." 

It is of considerable import, also, to note that the act which legalized 
teachers' institutes in Mass. in 1846 and provided for aid, also legal- 
ized County Teachers' Associations as is evidenced by this quotation:® 

Whenever any county association of teachers, and others, shall hold semi-annual 
meetings of not less than two days each, for the express purpose of promoting the 
nterests of common schools, such associations are entitled to receive fifty dollars a 
year from the state. 

As far as any authentic record goes, this is the first instance where 
such an association has been legalized. Under this act, the first 
association organized v/as that of Essex County, 1830. Its purpose 
was declared to be "the improvement of teachers and the system of 
education generally." 

It is not an important part of this investigation to trace any more 
intimately the relation between the early teachers' meetings or 
associations and the institutes, although it appears that in Pennsyl- 
vania this relationship was closer. Wickersham^*' has traced this 
relationship rather minutely from 1814 when "there was an organiza- 
tion in Philadelphia entitled *a Society for the promotion of a rational 
System of Education,'" 1817 when "James Edward presided over 
'The Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Association of Teachers of the 
Lancasterian System of Education.' " In 1835 two associations 
were formed in Philadelphia — "a Philadelphia Lyceum of Teachers" 

•Mann "Tenth Annual Report" as quoted by Barnard in "Normal Schools, 
etc.," p. 190. 

» Wickersham, J. P., "History of Education in Pa.," ch. XXVIII. 
i« Wickersham, Op. Cit. Ch. XXVIII. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 5 

and the "American Association for the Supply of Teachers." In 
1850 there was organized "The Philadelphia Association of Principals 
of Public Schools," which in 1867 was incorporated by the Legislature 
as "The Teachers' Institute of Philadelphia," whose object was "the 
improvement of the teachers of the public schools of the city and the 
county of Philadelphia, by means of lectures, essays and discussions 
upon educational topics, practical illustrations of modes of teaching, 
the formation of a teachers' library, etc." In the Report of the State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction for the year 1877 are found 
numerous accounts of early teachers' meetings and associations held 
as far back as 1827 and 1829 in Lehigh County where "The School- 
masters' Synod" held regularly advertised meetings. From 1848 
until 1852 when the State Teachers' Association was formed many 
local and county associations were created. Some of these developed 
into the first institutes held in the state, viz., the one held at Colum- 
bus, Warren County, 1848, and Lawrence County, 1851. The first 
teachers' institute held in Eastern Pennsylvania grew immediately 
out of the Lancaster County Educational Association. Indeed, this 
gradual transition and coalescence of early teachers' associations 
led Wickersham to say:^^ 

"A Teachers' Institute has characteristics so well defined that no one has had 
any difl&culty in calling a body of teachers organized in this form by the wrong name. 
This was not the case when the institute was first introduced into Pennsylvania. 
Bodies of teachers alike in all respects were then known indiscriminately as associa- 
tions, conventions, or institutes; and it is, therefore, quite impossible to point with 
certainty to the place where the first institute proper was held. But we can trace out 
the beginnings of institutes as we have traced out the beginnings of associations, 
both being parts of the same movement." 

This movement, of course, was the professional preparation of teachers 
and the rise of the teaching profession thru the founding of Normal 
Schools, not before 1859 in Pennsylvania tho established in Mass. 
in 1838 and in eight other states previous to Pennsylvania.^^ In view 
of this close interrelationship and influence of Teachers' Institutes 
and Teachers' Associations on the growth of teacher training, it is 
rather strange that these organizations have not received their proper 
emphasis in such a comprehensive study as the one recently conducted 
by the "The Carnegie Foundation. "^^ To understand the past and 

" Bagley, et al. "Professional Preparation of Teachers, etc." Bull. 14, Carnegie 
Foundation, p. 418. 

12 Bagley, et al. Op. Cit. Ch. III. 

" Mann, "Seventh Annual Report, Mass. Bd. of Ed." 



6 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

present function of Teachers' Institutes it is necessary to bear this 
genesis in mind. 

Early Purpose and Their Rapid Spread 

It is immaterial whether Teachers' Institutes had their first 
real origin in Connecticut in 1839 or in New York in 1843. They did 
spread rapidly after 1843 in contiguous states. We find Horace 
Mann pleading for this form of teachers' meetings and in 1844 four 
institutes in Mass. lasted two weeks and the attendance was restricted 
to one hundred teachers — fifty male and fifty female. The success 
of three institutes led Mann^* to urge the legislature to appropriate 
money for their support, after he had paid the deficit of the first 
institutes out of his own pocket. Massachusetts was the first state 
to make such an appropriation in 1846, New York following in 1847, 
and Pennsylvania in 1855. In connection with this aid it is interest- 
ing to note that the expenses of each institute were limited to $200 
each, the amount that has been the limit of county assistance to 
institutes in Pennsylvania since such aid was given. 

Priority of origin is of less import than a realization of the condi- 
tions which made necessary the establishment of Teachers' Institutes. 
The purpose in organizing them, however, seems to be quite clear. 
Their origin was due largely to the emergency in education that 
existed soon after establishing the public or common school system. 
This emergency was, as it is now, the scarcity of well trained and 
competent teachers, and, of course, the facilities to train them. This 
lack of preparation and scarcity of teachers can be no better illus- 
trated than by the "Memorial of the American Institute of Instruc- 
tion to the Legislature of Massachusetts on Normal Schools," 1837, 
extracts of which are herewith given.'^^ 

"That there is, throughout the Commonwealth, a great want of well-qualified 
teachers: 

"That this is felt in all the schools of all classes, but especially in the most impor- 
tant and numerous class, the district schools (rural) : 

"That whenever, in any town, exertion has been made to improve these schools, 
it has been met and baffled by the want of good teachers; that they have been sought 
for in vain; the highest salaries have been offered, to no purpose; that they are not to 
be found in sufficient numbers to supply the demand : 

"That their place is supplied by persons exceedingly incompetent, in many 
respects; by young men, in the course of their studies, teaching from necessity, and 

" Barnard — Normal Schools and other Agencies, p. 85. 
'^ Barnard, Normal Schools and other Agencies, p. 95. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 7 

often with a strong dislike for the pursuit; by mechanics and others wanting present 
employment; and by persons, who having failed in other callings, take to teaching as 
a last resort, with no qualifications for it, and no desire of continuing it longer than 
they are obliged by absolute necessity. . . . 

". , . We do not state the fact too strongly when we say that the time, capacities, 
and opportunities of thousands of the children are now sacrificed, winter after winter, 
to the preparation of teachers, who, after this enormous sacrifice, are notwithstanding, 
often very wretchedly prepared." 

Dr. Channing in advocating the establishment of an institution for 
the training of teachers on Feb. 28, 1837, at Boston thus expressed 
himself:^^ 

We need an institution for the formation of better teachers; and until this step is 
taken, we can make no important progress. The most crying want in this Common- 
wealth is the want of accomplished teachers. We boast of our schools, but our schools 
do comparatively little for want of educated instructors. . . . 

This situation was further intensified by the extreme apathy on the 
part of the public towards the common schools which were for many 
years after their establishment viewed as charitable institutions. 
It was this apathy that brought to the front men like Horace Mann 
and Henry Barnard, the apostles of an enlightened public opinion in 
that period of American Education known as "the common school 
revival" from 1830 to 1840.^^ It was in this period that "the teachers' 
institute which is an original American institution for training teach- 
ers, has grown up side by side with the normal school. ^^ The develop- 
ment of the two seems to be parallel. The need for capable teachers 
brought insistent demands from men like James G. Carter, the 
"father of Normal Schools" in America, responsible for the passage 
of the Normal School Act in Massachusetts in 1838; Charles Brooks, 
who visited the Prussian Normal Schools in 1834, and disseminated 
the ideas he had gained; Henry Barnard, the distinguished pioneer 
in educational journalism; and, "especially Horace Mann, who, as 
Secretary of the State Board of Education in Massachusetts, did 
more than any one other to develop the Normal School idea and to 
make it effective." It was in the storm and stress of this "educational 
decadence, "^^ that teachers' institutes had their origin. As a result 
of his failure to persuade the Connecticut Legislature to provide a 

'* Graves, "History of Education," Vol. 3, ch. 6. 

'' Hinsdale, "Training of Teachers," in Butler's "Education in U. S.," p. 382. , 

'* Graves, Op. Cit. Ch. 6, p. 165. 

'' Cubberley, "Histor>' of Education," p. 691. 



8 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

Normal School in 1838, he inaugurated a year later (1839) the system 
of teachers' institutes as already mentioned. It was not until 1849 
that the first Normal School was established in Conn. These early 
institutes as inaugurated by Barnard continued from four to six 
weeks and were virtually summer schools. The first Model School 
in this country was established in 1849 (Monroe Cyclopedia of 
Education), but we are told by Cubberley^'' that "for his teachers' 
institutes Barnard devised a travelling model school, to give demon- 
stration lessons in the art of teaching." Thus the purpose of this 
pioneer institute in the words of Dr. Barnard was "to show the prac- 
ticability of making some provision for the better qualification of 
common school teachers, by giving them the opportunity to revise 
and extend their knowledge of the studies usually pursued in the 
District Schools, and of the best method of school arrangements, 
instruction, and government, under the recitations and lectures of 
experienced and well known teachers and educators. "^^ In Barnard's 
"Draft of a School Law" submitted to the Legislature of Rhode 
Island in May 1844, advocating Teachers' Institutes," he defined and 
explained Teachers' Institutes" in essentially the same language :^^ 

By a Teachers' Institute is meant all which is generally understood by a Teachers' 
Assocaition and something more. It is an organization of the teachers of a town, 
county, or state for improvement in their profession, by meeting for a longer or shorter 
time for a thorough review of the studies of the public schools, under teachers of ac- 
knowledged reputation, as well as for lectures, discussions, and essays on various 
methods of school discipline and instruction. . . . 

The subjects that were taught in the first institute (1839) are as 
follows :^^ 

Grammar, Mental and Practical Arithmetic, with explanation of "difficult points 
in Fractions, Roots, &c"; "different points of Higher Mathematics so far as they were 
ever taught in district schools, or would help to explain elementary Aritlmietic" ; 
lessons in Reading; English Composition; lectures on school government; first princi- 
ples of Mathematical and Astronomical Geograph}^, the use of Globes, &c. Mr. 
Barnard delivered several lectures explanatory of the relations of the teacher to the 
school system, to parents, and to pupils"; also on the laws of health to be practically 
observed by pupils and teachers in the school room; on the best methods of conducting 
Teachers' Associations, and of interesting parents." He also pointed out the inmie- 
diate, extensive, and practical results of gathering the j'oung and less experienced 
teachers of a county for a brief but systematic review of the whole subject. . . . 

^^ Barnard, "American Journal of Education," Vol. 15, p. 387-389. 
^^ Barnard, "American Journal of Education," Vol. 15, p. 407. 
-- Barnard, "American Journal of Education," Vol. 15. 
-' Barnard, "American Journal of Education," Vol. 15. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 9 

These gatherings were shown to be highly useful in reference to the local improvement 
of schools, where they should be held. 

In 1845, six years after the first institute in Connecticut, Barnard 
replied to a letter received from James M. Bunce, touching on the 
subject of institutes. Parts of the letter are indicative of a second 
great purpose Barnard had in organizing institutes — that of creating 
strong public sentiment:^ 

My advice is to bring up these subjects, including the right and duty of taxation 
for school purposes, — in a series of evening meetings, held as a part of Teachers' 
Institutes, substantially like those established at Hartford in 1839. The leading 
features should be the same but I would advise sessions of not more than a week, — no 
longer than you can keep up the enthusiastic interest and attention of the members, 
who should be distributed thru the families. This is an essential feature of my ideal of 
a Teachers' Institute, held in reference not only to the professional training of teachers, 
but to the development of parental interest and appreciation of their work, as well as to 
local school improvement. If I am correct in this observation, you had better dis- 
cuss the estabhshment of a City High School, when the public mind is warmed by 
the protracted discussions and addresses of arousing teachers' institutes. . . . And 
in due time, longer or shorter, in proportion to the number of meetings of the 
right kind you hold in the places which need the quickening influence of discussion 
and light, a revolution will be achieved in the school habits and the school laws of 
Conn. 

Aside from the real need to train teachers and to improve them in the 
service, it is very clear that Barnard regarded the teachers' institute 
as a powerful influence in affecting and molding public sentiment. 
This is seen in all his reports of institutes, but in no clearer way than 
in the essay written by Dr. Porter at the request of Mr. Barnard, 
1846, extracts of which follow: 

Teachers' Institutes maj'^ be held thruout the state, and that also, without delay. 
These are conventions for mutual improvement and excitement. . . . Here raw and 
timid teachers are initiated into their new business; older teachers receive valuable 
suggestions and — apply them. An enthusiasm in their business is excited. They are 
impressed with right views of the dignity and solemnity of their employment. . . . 
These institutes differ from ordinar}^ conventions, in that they furnish definite business, 
and are spent in gaining real knowledge. They are not wasted in idle harangues and 
fine speeches. . . . Let these Institutes be held in Connecticut without delay, — and 
it will do much to kindle zeal and create hope for our common schools. . . . Let it be 
tried and it will not be many years before the inquiry will be raised, whether an educa- 
tion for their (teachers') is not required, and whether schools for this specific purpose 
are not demanded. 

This was the famous "prize essay," whose ideas were incorporated in 
Barnard's Report for 1846, urging the establishment of teachers' 

'^ Barnard, "American Journal of Education," Vol. 15, pp. 392-394. 



10 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

institutes next to that of Normal Schools. It is clear in this essay- 
that in addition to the use of institutes for the training of teachers 
and arousing of public sentiment, was the development of profes- 
sional spirit or zeal. 

Character of Early Institutes 

Because of the historical bearing on the function of institutes, 
excerpts from "The Institute Circular Letter" sent out by Barnard as 
Commissioner of Public Schools of Rhode Island on the aim, method, 
and spirit of the Institutes will be apropos :2^ 

Exercises of the Institute will embrace: 

1. A review of the studies usually taught in the pubHc schools of this state with 
the exemplifications of the best method of instruction in each branch, and witli special 
attention to difficulties as any member of the Institute may have encountered teaching 
the same; 

2. Familiar lectures and discussions among members in the organizations of 
schools, the classification of pupils, and the theory and practice of teaching; 

3. Public lectures and discussions in the evening, on topics calculated to interest 
parents and the community generally, in the subject of education, and the organiza- 
tion, administration, and improvement of public schools. 

The following are some of the details of organization, of peculiar inter- 
est to those who desire short institute sessions: 

Sessions started at 8:45 and continued until 12 o'clock, and from 1:30 to 5:00, 
with five or ten minutes intermission at the end of each hour. Institute lasted during 
the week. 

Following are some of the topics discussed: 

The length and frequency of recess in the daily sessions of school; 

Neatness in and about the school room; 

PunctuaUty and regularity in attendance; 

Management of bad boys in school; 

Oral instruction; 

Cheerfulness in school rooms, discipline, etc. 

The community interest is well illustrated by the fact that the place 
of meeting was crowded every evening by the citizens of the place 
and neighborhood, and that at the close of the meeting on Friday 
night, a resolution like the following was unanimously passed: 

Resolved, That this community have felt a deep interest in the exercises of the 
Teachers' Institute held among us . . . and we regard it a special favor that the 
teachers resorted to this place, etc. . . . 

2^ Barnard, "American Journal of Education," Vol. 15. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 11 

We can see that the topics discussed were strictly pedagogical and 
practical; the community spirit high. Mr. Barnard himself is witness 
to the transformation wrought by the institute in Rhode Island when 
he tells us that they "wrought a revolution in the ideals and habits of 
the people of Rhode Island." 

Before considering more concretely the early beginnings of 
Teachers' Institutes in Pennsylvania, a few extracts from the reports 
of the early institutes in two or three other states, will aid our inter- 
pretation of the early institutes, particularly in the states of New 
York and Ohio in both of which states the institutes appeared to 
make earlier headway. From the report^^ of Supt. Denman, ac- 
credited with having held the first Teachers' Institute in the U. S. 
we learn that at this first institute, 1843, 

Twenty-eight teachers were in attendance, and received daily instruction for 
a term of two weeks, in the best modes of governing and teaching the various common 
branches which necessarily included a critical review of those branches and were 
instructed in the analysis of the English language, vocal music, and other branches not 
hitherto usually taught in the common schools. . . . Having previously visited the 
schools of those present at the institute, it gives me great pleasure to be able to state 
that their schools during the past summer have been conducted from 50 to 100% 
better than formerly. 

From the Report^*' of 1845 we get the first danger signal: 

Mr. Page, Principal of a State Normal School and who had 
addressed 11 institutes attended by over 1000 teachers said: 

. . . They are exposed to dangers. . . . One of the threatening dangers is that 
these institutes may with their sessions of ten days in a year become substitutes for 
more thorough training. . . . 

Mr. Page also commended the institutes as: 

Valuable instrumentalities in elevating the profession of the teacher. 

From the Report of Supt. Galloway, Ohio, Jan. 14, 1847 we get 
this comment:^® 

. . , There is no plan so well calculated to produce a reform in the character of 
teachers, as these recent, but rapidly extending associations designated as "Teachers' 
Institutes." The prominent object of this institution is to prepare teachers for a full 
and successful discharge of their duties. At these meetings which are usually held 
semi-annually, and for a period of two to three weeks, the teachers form themselves into 
a school, etc. . . . Another object contemplated by these "institutes" is to enlighten 
public sentiment. To secure this, our public evening sessions are held, at which the 
nature and importance of education, and the duties, obligations, and responsibilities of all 

2« Barnard, "American Journal of Education," Vol. 15. 



12 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

classes . . . are prominently presented and pressed upon public attention. (Italics 
are writer's.) 

Origins in Pennsylvania 

The rise of Teachers' Institutes in Pennsylvania is attributable 
to three causes, all of which are steps in the evolution of the free 
public schools. The first of these causes, as in the New England 
States, was the wretched academic and professional status of teach- 
ers about 1850; the second, and probably just as important and 
powerful, was the creation of a sentiment which would compel the 
legislature to act; and in the third place, we have the institute in the 
hands of the county superintendent as an administrative device for 
exercising his power or leadership. It is very doubtful, as will be 
revealed by our sources, whether any of these causes was of any but 
a temporary character. The County Institute was designed as a 
temporary expedient — a link in tiding over the great teacher emer- 
gency of the fifties and sixties until Normal Schools could be estab- 
lished. We shall gradually trace this historic conception of teachers' 
institutes in Pennsylvania. 

It is, of course, impossible to separate these three causes and many 
minor ones. They are all interrelated and all operated in bringing 
about the introduction of the institute system into the State. It 
cannot be said with certainty whether the need for adequately 
prepared teachers was the prime factor, or whether it was the creation 
of public sentiment thru these organizations that seem to have 
grown out of the many local and county associations in Pennsylvania. 
On account of the many teachers' associations in Pennsylvania prior 
to 1850, it is almost impossible to determine where the first real 
teachers' institute was held. Wickersham, seems to think that the 
"first well defined Teachers' Institute of which we can find any record 
was held at Columbus, Warren County, in 1848. It continued in 
session at least two weeksJ''^'' While this institute met in 1848, 
Crawford County claims the first institute, tho it was held in 1850.^^ 
Dr. John Barker, a former President of Allegheny College, has 
thrown some interesting light on this Crawford County Institute. 
To quote in part; 

The past history of the Crawford County teachers' institute is one on which 
every friend of popular education, indeed of every friend of humanity, and of his race, 

" Wickersham, Op. Cit. p. 651. 
=*» Pa. State Report, 1877, p. 201. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 13 

must dwell with unalloyed pleasure. . . . Thus far harmony, energy, has marked 
the deliberations of this body; progress has been its watchword, and under its auspices, 
a vast amount of information has been diffused thru the community at large in regard 
to the proper province of public schools.^" 

It is evident that in this opinion, the dififusion of information and 
the influence on the community were features. 

It remained for Dr. Thomas H. Burrowes, of Lancaster, later 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction, to state rather clearly the 
controlling aim of the Institutes as he saw it in 1852. At the opening 
of the Conemaugh Institute in Indiana County, Dr. Burrowes spoke 
in part as follows:^" 

The Common School system, though it has done much, has advanced but little 
as a practical means of teaching. And why has it not advanced? Because we have all 
been laboring under a mistake. We have all been calling upon Hercules to help us, 
but we have not been putting our shoulders to the wheel. We have been asking the 
Legislature to take action for the cause of education, but, mark these words, "we have 
neglected to take measures for forming that public opinion which makes the legislature 
act. The move must take place ivith you the teachers, and us the people." Note further 
these words: "We must organize teachers' institutes and form other associations for 
elevating the standard of education." (Italics are the writer's.) 

There can be no mistake in what Burrowes regarded as the moving 
spirit in the establishment of Institutes. It was a form of publicity 
and propaganda to influence the Legislature. 

In a circular letter on Teachers' Institutes'^ sent out on Feb. 16, 
1853 by J. M. Barnett, a member of the Executive Committee State 
Teachers' Association just organized the year before, is found a most 
illuminating explanation of the function and purpose of the early 
teachers' institutes: 

. . . My object first is to obtain definite and reliable information in regard to the 
condition of the schools of your county, the kind of teachers employed, and the degree 
of interest manifested by the parents in the cause. . . . 

I presume that teachers as a class are but poorly qualified and the people manifes 
but little interest in the education of their children. If this be the case, what measure 
are you taking to remedy these evils? . . . Allow me to suggest institutes. The 
executive committee of the State Teachers' Association . . . were instructed to devise 
and carry into effect as far as possible measures for holding a Teachers' Institute in 
every county of the state. The reasons urged were that institutes are the best available 
means for mjitual improvement among teachers, for elevating the teachers' profession and 

29 Pa. State Report, 1877, p. 202. 

'•Pa. Journal of Ed. Vol. 1, p. 234 (1852). 

« Barnett, Penna. School Journal, Vol. 1, 1853, p. 437, 438. 



14 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

the character of our common schools to what they should be — and for awakening a deep 
and abiding interest among the people in the great cause of education. I will add only one 
other consideration in their favor. It is tmiversally admitted that Pennsylvania should 
have schools for the special purpose of training her teachers professionally. The insti- 
tute furnishes the surest means to secure their establishment. (Italics are writer's.) 

This Institute Circular is quoted so fully, with important parts 
capitalized by the writer, because it summarizes all the important 
factors in the development of the institute — preparation of teachers, 
professional zeal, improving the schools, creating sentiment, and 
establishing Normal Schools. A few months later, WiUiam Travis^^ 
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the same association, 
issued another stirring appeal along the same lines. Under the 
"nature and advantages of Teachers' Institutes" were mentioned: 

1. Associations of Teachers for mutual improvement in the art of teaching; 

2. Teachers are brought together as friends and co-workers; 

3. They lead to the establishment of the profession of teaching; 

4. Opportunities given for instructing the people in the important duties they are 
called upon to discharge. 

It is also worth while to quote from an editoriaP^ written in Nov. 
1852 by Thomas Burrowes who had just attended the Conemaugh 
Institute, Indiana County: 

But when this number of young, ardent, intelligent teachers were seen, day after 
day, during the time just named, submitting themselves to instruction with aU the 
simplicity of little children, yet all the noble ardor of devotees to science, the spectacle 
assumed a degree of moral beauty not often witnessed, and presented to the reflecting 
mind the Teachers' Institute in its true light. It is, in fact, the very agency fitted to the 
educational wants of Pennsylvania in the present emergency. Among its advantages may 
be named: The association of the teachers in the same county with each other; the 
professional character; the acquisition of knowledge in the art of teaching; the acquisi- 
tion of knowledge in the science taught in the schools; and the power of mental analysis. 

This extract of an early editorial on institutes by one of Pennsylva- 
nia's educational statesmen epitomizes the various objects for which 
institutes existed in the fifties — the solving of the dilemma of 
untrained teachers, both academically and professionally. At the 
same time, strange as it may seem, Mr. Burrowes pointed out two 
possible evils of institutes — (1) "perversion from their original ob- 
jects by book agents," and (2) "new and doubtful theory in education 
may be propagated!" 

^^ Travis, Penna. School Journal, Vol. 1, 1853. 

^ Burrowes, Penna. School Journal, Vol. 1, 1852, Nov. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 15 

To illustrate further the temporary expediency of institutes as 
then regarded we may quote this extract from the resolution^* in 
organizing a Teachers' Institute in Lancaster County in 1852: 

Whereas, In the absence of State Normal Schools for the preparation of Teachers 
for the schools of the State, experience has shown that Teachers' Institutes are the 
best means within our own reach for mutual improvement. 

This Institute was held for one week in January, 1853. It was the 
direct outgrowth of an Educational Association; its main purpose or 
aim was the training of teachers in the absence of better facilities. 

Teachers' Institutes were organized in Bucks County in 1855. 
This appears to be a voluntary association as may be inferred^^ from 
the Preamble to the Constitution: 

To enlist the interest, secure the influence, and promote the efficient actions of 
the friends of education in Bucks County; in improving the standard of the Teachers' 
profession, and thus promoting educational advancement; we, whose names are here- 
unto appended, resolve ourselves into an association for said purpose and do adopt 
the following Constitution, etc. . . . 

Here again we see that it was the creation of interest in education, 
just as it was in organizing the Union County Institute in 1855, where 
we read that "the object shall be to engage the interest, secure the 
influence, and promote the advancement of Education,"^^ 

Examples of similar expressions from many counties could be 
indefinitely multiplied. There is little doubt that propaganda 
for better educational conditions and better trained teachers were the 
dominant notes. That there was a dire need of well trained teachers 
can be shown by giving a few illustrations of the utter hopelessness 
of the teacher training situation from 1850 to 1860. These examples 
are not exaggerated, but selected at random from the reports of the 
county superintendents from 1855 to 1860. They do, however, illus- 
trate the serious situation out of which partly grew the necessity for 
teachers' institutes. The teachers themselves realized this situation, 
for in the Lancaster County Institute already referred to (q. v.) a 
resolutions^ was offered by J. P. Wickersham, and favorably acted 
upon, to the effect that the county superintendency and State 
Normal Schools be established. This resolution, unanimously car- 

" Penna. School Journal, Vol. 1, 1852. 

" Doylestown Daily Intelligencer Files, 1855. 

» State Supt. Report 1877, p. 335. 

" State Supt. Report, 1877, p. 335. 



16 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

ried, was sent to the State Legislature. At the second meeting of this 
institute, November 1854, another resolution was passed as follows:** 

That we recommend to our worthy county superintendent the propriety of calling 
a county teachers' institute, to continue in session for the term of three months. 

The teachers of 1854 evidently did not regard a summer school of 12 
weeks as a hardship. This institute was actually held in the summer 
of 1855 as "The Lancaster County Normal Institute," at Millers- 
ville, in the buildings of the Millersville Academy. This institute 
later became "The Lancaster County Normal School," which in turn 
became the first State Normal School in Pennsylvania, with J. P. 
Wickersham as its principal, in 1859.^^ 

Examples of Qualifications of Teachers — From Co. Supt. 
Reports 

Allegheny County — 1855^^ 

"With regard to those whom I was compelled to reject, but little need be said. 
Their want of quaUfications can be best inferred from the foUoMdng MS. Their 
attainments, though wonderful indeed, did not entitle them to a certificate, even of a 
middhng grade. 

"Orthography — 'Watter,' 'speach,' 'bissy,' 'verry,' 'beaurrow,' 'grammer,' 
'arithmatic,' 'oshun,' 'lattitude,' 'Urope,' 'Wensday,' 'comicle,' 'parshal,' 'unherd,' 
'tence,' 'artiphaser,' 'propper,' etc." 

"Definition of terms — Meridian? 'Half round;' 'When the sun shines fare at 1 
o'c.'; Grammar? — 'The art of sience.' Orthography? — 'Is spellin and spellin is 
naming the letters.' Evolution? — 'A tumin round.' 

"Geography — 'How is Pennsylvania bounded? Ans. 'I don no how bound.' 

"This is not inserted here to excite laughter — rather sympathy — but simply 
to exhibit the kind of teachers that have doubtless heretofore been employed. . Was 
it any wonder that our schools were retrogressing? That parents complained and 
justly, too, of the little or no advancement made by their children? That directors 
were careless, perhaps, culpably negligent, about visiting their schools?" 

Lehigh County — 1855^^ 
"The strict letter of the law would have compelled me to reject a still greater 
number, but under the circumstances I did not consider it a pohcy, though the charac- 
ter of the certificates amounted to more than a rejection. I will mention one as an 
illustration: In one of the districts where the compensation for teachers is not very 
liberal, I was requested to examine a young man, pronounced by those who had 
previously employed him, and who desired again to employ him, as a very competent 
(!) teacher. After having spent quite a long time in endeavoring to ascertain in 
what branches he excelled, I gave him a temporary certificate, with every branch 

'» State Supt. Report, 1855. 
»» State Report— 1?67. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 17 

erased except orthography, reading, and elementary principles of arithmetic, with a 
written addition below of 'That which is not erased the holder is still very deficient in.' 
The applicant was much pleased with his certificate, and was afterwards employed 
to teach the best school in the district, the written addition below being taken to mean 
an extra recommendation. This, however, was the only case in which so much defi- 
ciency recieved even a scrap of paper from me." From 1856 report — "Twenty-six 
teachers give full satisfaction, sixty-two may be called medium, and employed until 
better ones can be secured; seventy-nine would better be dismissed from the service. 

Selected Items from Report of A. G. Curtin, Supt. of Schools 

1857 

(Seven years after establishing of Institutes) 

Experience in Teaching 

Thirty-four (34) counties report the number of teachers who have taught less 

than one year, to be 1,793 29% 

Who have taught between one and three years 2,035 34% 

Who have taught between three and six years 612 10% 

Who have taught between ten and twenty years 389 6% 

Who have taught over twenty years 123 2% 

This develops the large amount of untrained inexperience under which the pro- 
fession is suffering. Out of six thousand teachers reported under this head, nearly 
four thousand of less experience than three years, and nearly half of the latter number 
less than one year; and, as there is reason to know, a large proportion of them without 
the special preparation for the work which is essential to success. If the public schools 
are not every where prosperous, is not the reason obvious; and does not the public 
welfare demand a timely and adequate remedy? 

Educational Reading 

The number of teachers in forty-one (41) counties, who have read books and 

periodicals on teaching, and other educational works is 3,256 

Those who have not 4,180 

Permanent Teachers 

Thirty-two (32) counties report the number of teachers who intend to make 

teaching a permanent business, to be 2,735 

Those who do not 3,049 

Many of the former class are influenced in their determination, by the improving 
prospects of the pubhc schools, but will quit the business, if the system should receive any 
serious check at this stage of its development, and their hopes he thus disappointed. If, for 
instance, the protection now afforded by the County Superintendency against the 
inroads of the incompetent and umvorthy, should be removed they would feel them- 
selves obliged to retire from the unequal and degrading competition, that would be the 
immediate and inevitable result. 

Many of the latter class enter the school room, not from any love of the cause, 
or desire to excel, but merely to secure a temporary livelihood; and are employed 
from necessity, not choice. 



18 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

In the Report of 1856 Supt. Curtin says: 

The scarcity of competent teachers is the great want of our schools. 

Education of Teachers 

The official returns on this point are meagre; but from what has been received, 
and information derived from other sources, it may be safely stated that not two per 
pent, of the whole niomher of teachers in the State estimate, are graduates of colleges or 
Normal Schools. This does not include Philadelphia. 

Not twenty per cent are graduates of academies or private seminaries. 

About twenty-eight per cent have had the benefit of tuition for brief periods, in 
academies and private schools. 

And about fifty per cent have received their entire educational training in the 
common schools of their respective neighborhoods. The general character and quality 
of that education may be inferred from the character of the teachers too often employed 
in the public schools, in the large majority of districts, prior to the act of 1854. 

Vast improvement has been made, however, in the last two years, on the part of 
teachers, by private study, and attendance upon voluntary teachers' institutes; under 
the influence of County Superintendents, and the stimulus of the graded temporary 
certificate. 

Qualifications of Teachers 
The number of teachers in forty-three (43) counties, who give full satisfaction in 

their respective grades, is 2,370 

Those who may be called medium teachers, and may be employed till better can 

be procured 3,660 

The number whose services had better be dispensed with 2,005 

The integrity of this report compels the statement, that these unqualified teachers 
are tolerated in the schools, simply because their places cannot, as yet, be supplied 
with such as are competent; and to reject them, would be to close the schools entirely. 
But the schools are not as bad off in this respect, by one-half, as they were two years 
ago. In the Ught of this single fact, the special wants of the system and the reforma- 
tion already accomplished, can be seen at a glance. 

In 1867 we find Supt. Wickersham making the statement^^ that, 
"the qualifications of teachers of the state are still far below what 
they ought to be. This is shown by the astonishing fact that not one- 
half of them ever read a single book on the subject of teaching." 
Again in his report for 1880^° we read that, "four-fifths of all oui 
teachers to-day have made little special preparation for their work." 
It was also in this report that Supt. Wickersham visioned the real 
problems of the improvement of teachers in service when he recom- 
mended "closer supervision" and that "to bring this about school 
districts might be given power to combine for the purposes of super- 
vision." 

^o State Report— 1880. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 19 

In contrast to this dark situation, a ray of light appears when we 
examine a few hopeful reports of what was being accomplished thru 
the newly organized institutes. Such examples as the following are 
typical of what was being expected from institutes: 

In the absence of Normal Schools, I know of no plan better calculated to improve 
teachers, and enlist parents and directors in the great Cause.^' 

The Institute has done a great work for our teachers, and schools, and especially 
in molding public sentiment.^* 

State Supt. Higbee:''^ 

The County Institutes are growing in power from year to year. No factor is more 
important or serviceable in the way of awakening and deepening interests in educa- 
tional affairs. 

No historical resume of teachers' institutes in Pennsylvania 
would be adequate, nor sufficiently helpful in the present institute 
problem, without examining the expressions of Andrew G. Curtin, 
who before his governorship, held the dual office of Secretary of the 
Commonwealth and State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 
Mr, Curtin has in his reports as superintendent given a clear and 
specific analysis of the needs of education in his day and of the 
purpose and function of the institute in those critical days for the 
common schools. Supt. Curtin always advocated the improvement 
of the schools of the state by the establishing of State Normal Schools 
and of the County Superintendency. These two agencies were 
always tied up with the institutes. He clearly saw that underneath 
all movements for educational progress was public opinion and 
interest. 

The teachers' institutes now established have contributed much to the improve- 
ment of teachers, and in elevating public opinion in educational interests.''* 

Continuing in this same report he said: 

It is due to the community that all prudent measures should be adopted to 
inform and satisfy this growing public sentiment, as well as directly build up the schools. 
Associated effort is of the first importance to the success of aU educational movements. 
. . . The county institute is undeniably the most available present means for the accomp- 
lishment of this purpose; and a vast deal of good has resulted from voluntary efforts in this 
direction during the past year. 

When a little later on in this same report Mr. Curtin advocated that 
institutes should be under "the fostering care" of the public treasury, 

^' State Report — 1885, Beaver County Supt. 

« State Report— 1877, Lehigh County Supt. for 1858. 

« Report— 1882— P. XIII. 

** State Supt. Report, 1855. 



20 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

he called them "provisional Normal Schools," he recognized their 
work and their temporary character. 

Of considerable interest is this extract from Mr. Curtin's report in 
1857:^5 

It is not supposed that the actual amount of professional scientific knowledge 
carried away from the institutes by each member is of itself very great, or that it 
forms the chief feature of its usefulness. This is but a secondary consideration. 

Another, and by no means the least beneficial effect of the institute, is the public 
attention it attracts to the whole educational movement: and the means for assistance 
and encouragement it affords to that generous portion of the community who love 
the schools, thus ministering to the elevation of the system in its most material points. 
In this same report in connection with institutes, Mr. Curtin stresses 
that "the institute attaches the teacher to his profession, by fostering 
that esprit de corps so necessary in every pursuit." It is, therefore, 
not a difficult matter to infer that in Supt. Curtin's judgment the 
actual training of teachers through the institute was a secondary 
matter to that public revival so necessary at the time in order to 
drag the schools out of the slough of despond into which they had 
fallen. It is of peculiar coincidence that at least in another state 
about this same time the State Superintendent was advocating 
institutes on this same ground. Supt. Edwards of Illinois said:"^ 

Teachers' Institutes are becoming one of the most important means of advanc- 
ing the common school interests known to the country. They serve for the time being 
nearly all the purposes of a well conducted normal school, and are equally beneficial 
to the teachers who attend, and to the interests of the cause of education in the locality 
in which they are held. 

Summary of Chapter 

1. Institutes were estabHshed to meet an emergency in the short- 
age of adequately trained teachers. 

2. There is no evidence to show that they should be anything but 
temporary. 

3. They were the means of stimulating pubHc interest in educa- 
tion. 

4. Their value was undoubtedly considerable not only in stressing 
the need of better academic and professional training, but in opening 
up the way for the founding of something more satisfactory for doing 
the work they were intended to do. 

5. In many cases institutes were the outgrowth of educational 
associations. 

« State Supt. Report, 1857. 

" Report of the Supt. of Public Instruction, Illinois, Associations. 1855-56, p. 18. 



CHAPTER II 



Aims 



The purpose of this chapter is two fold: (1) to reveal, as well as 
it can be done, what may be generally regarded as the aims of teach- 
ers' institutes; (2) what should be the aims. The factors that will 
be employed in determining this are (1) County Superintendents; 
(2) District Superintendents; (3) Supervising Principals; (4) Opinions 
from various State Departments of Public Instruction; (5) Teachers 
themselves; and (6) Educational Authorities. 

Historically,^ we have seen that the aim or the purpose in founding 
County Institutes, as distinguished from District and Normal Insti- 
tutes,^ was at least four fold: (1) The training of the very poorly 
and inadequately prepared teachers; (2) A public propaganda in 
behalf of new school legislation, especially in Pennsylvania, where 
Normal Schools and the County Superintendency were early advo- 
cated through the institute; (3) Influencing public opinion through 
the arousal of an educational interest; and (4) the creation and 
development of an esprit de corps. The original aim was, to a large 
extent, the professional preparation of teachers, even though it was 
in a very crude way. An examination of the data furnished in Chap- 
ter I on "Historical Origins" and the Institute Manuals in many 
states, seems to support this aim, even within comparatively recent 
times. "The main purpose of all institute work is to develop teaching 
and training power."^ Among the six purposes mentioned in the 
West Virginia Manual are: 

1. To afford an opportunity for teachers to secure such insight into proper 
methods as will make it possible for them to teach with more ease and pleasure to 
themselves and more fruitful results for pupils. 

2. To give definite instruction in affairs of school administration, that will 
assist the teachers in the proper solution of any difficulties that may arise in the 
actual work from day to day. 

* Chapter I — Historic Origins. 

- Institute in this study refers to county institute, five days, unless otherwise 
specified. 

' Kentucky Manual on Institutes, 1910. 

21 



22 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

The Indiana Manual says, "Briefly, it seems that the functions of the 
institute are two in number — the meeting of the immediate practical 
needs of the teachers, and the giving of inspiration." This same 
state's manual also adds the following: "Academic instruction, help 
in school organization and in the mechanics of the recitation, promo- 
tion of sociability and good will among teachers, . . . helping in 
methods of teaching particular subjects, giving deeper insight into 
the principles of education . . . etc." Supt. Bateman, Illinois 
1859-63 has summed the advantages or aims of teachers' institutes 
fully :4 

Professional knowledge and insight, 

Help in specific difficulties, 

The proper discipHne of schools, 

Quickening of the professional esprit du corps, 

Social acquaintance and friendship, 

Community benefits: 

(1) Public is aroused to the importance of education. 

(2) True educational standards are set before the public. 

(3) Mutual confidence and good understanding are estabUshed between the 
people and school officers and teachers. 

While these are set down as benefits, they are a fair indication of the 
underlying aim, comprehensive, but doubtful of fulfillment as will be 
revealed in another chapter. 

The Educational Commission of the State of Illinois, appointed in 
1907, issued in Bulletin No. 5 a comprehensive report on Teachers' 
Institutes, exclusively. The aim of the institute as formulated by this 
commission of expert educators is worth quoting, even though their 
recommendations in the matter of Teachers' Institutes were not 
adopted by the Legislature:^ 

The main purpose of the institute is to stimulate the desire of teachers for pro- 
fessional excellence so that they will be impelled to increase their professional knowl- 
edge and skill in schools primarily established for that purpose. The chief emphasis 
must, therefore, be laid upon developing in the minds of those who attend the institute, 
true conceptions in regard to the science and art of education and the dignity and 
nobility of the work of the teacher; upon inciting in the teacher, and the public gen- 
erally, an enthusiasm for education; upon promoting professional esprit du corps which 
wUl raise to the maximum the practical efficiency of the teachers of the county. 

This whole aim can be summed up in one phrase — "professional 
zeal." 

* Ruediger, Op. Cit., p. 29. 

5 Illinois School Report, 1908-10, p. 420. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 23 

It is not within the scope of this investigation to analyze or to 
determine the underlying legal aims of institutes as revealed by the 
Statutes authorizing teachers institutes in the .various states, even 
though the aims were stated. In the School Law of Pennsylvania, 
this aim is pretty definitely set up. Teachers' Institutes in this state 
were legalized by the Act of April 9, 1867. The aim as the law 
contemplated it is: 

"The count}' superintendent of each county in this Commonwealth is hereby author- 
ized and required once in each year — to call upon and invite the teachers of the com- 
mon schools, and other institutions of learning in his county, to assemble together and 
organize themselves into a teachers' institute, to be devoted to the improvement of 
teachers in the science and art of education to continue in session at least five days, 
etc." 

The school law of 1911 made no change whatever in the expression of 
this aim, except to add ^'history of education" to the ^'science and art of 
education.'" This aim is very broad and can include anything. One 
thing is certain — the act seems to indicate that the main object is 
"the improvement of teachers " in other words a very clear mandate that 
teachers must improve while in service. The institute was organized, 
therefore, not to train those who were not teachers, but to improve 
these who were teachers. This distinction must be borne in mind. 
It is fundamental, a difiference between training and improvement. 
It is the key to any aim that may be set up for present day institutes. 
It is very trite to say that the aim of education has changed with 
new needs and new conditions. The aim set up for education in 
the eighteenth century would not suffice for the twentieth. The 
educational aim has been evolved in a progressive way. In the evolu- 
tion of our public school system in this country the various aims 
have changed to meet certain well known and felt needs. It is 
doubtful whether the aims and functions of teachers' institutes, 
organized for certain specific conditions and needs, eighty-two years 
ago, have changed materially, if very little. If Henry Barnard, 
Horace Mann, or Supt. A. G. Curtin were quoted, giving the aims of 
teachers' institutes as they understood them in their own day, there 
would be essentially no difference between those aims and those 
already quoted. In fact, all the aims quoted up to the present stage 
of our study can be distilled into one or two well-known and general 
phrases — "professional zeal," "esprit de corps," and "inspiration." 
We shall now compare these historic aims with those of the present 
time. 



24 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

Aims as Reported by County Superintendents 

In February 1919 a comprehensive questionnaire bearing on 
"The Status of County Teachers' Institutes in Pennsylvania" was 
submitted to all the county superintendents in Penna. (This ques- 
tionnaire is reproduced in the Appendix.) Two questions, Nos. 
14 and 21 had an indirect and also direct bearing on the aims and 
purposes of the Institute. This questionnaire was answered by 65 
of the 66 county superintendents. These two questions were 
answered fully. The following table summarizes the results of this 
question: 

Table I — Ways in Which Institutes May Help Teachers 

(Aims) 
Ranks or Preferences 

Ways First Second Third Fourth Fifth 



a. Subject Matter 3 

b. Methods of Teaching 15 

c. Professional Inspiration 46 

d. Better discipline in rural schools 4 

e. Impetus to prof, by teachers 7 

f . Social contacts 6 

g. Exchange of Ideas 2 

h. Community Uplift 6 

i. Opportunity to meet supts. and teachers. 2 

j. Discussion of immediate school problem. . 4 



County Superintendents in Pennsylvania according to the above 
responses would choose in their order the following as the chief 
aims of the county institute: 

First — Professional Inspiration, 46 first choice 

Second — Methods of Teaching, 15 first choice 

Third — Impetus to Prof. Reading, 7 first choice (A poor third) 

If a system of weighting^ to choices were adopted, allowing first 
choice three points, second two, third one, this order of chief aims 
would not be affected. When carefully analyzed, we find that 46, 

^This system of weighting is merely arbitrary. No defense for it is offered. 
It is used merely to reduce to common units. It does not in any way affect the validity 
of the results. 



2 


6 


3 


11 


15 


6 


6 


5 


4 


1 


2 


2 


5 


13 


7 


2 


7 


12 


9 


12 


17 


4 





5 


12 


14 


7 


4 


7 


9 


5 


8 


7 


6 


6 


12 


8 


8 


9 


4 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 25 

or nearly 50 per ct. of all first choices were for professional inspira- 
tion, 15, or about 16 per cent., methods, while the others were 
scattered mainly among items marked "e," "f," and "h." 
These three main aims are well maintained in the nature of the 
replies to question No. 24 (q.v.), which required a specific answer as 
to aim. The question was "What do you regard as the aim or 
purpose of institutes as at present organized and conducted?" 
Fifty-four county superintendents answered this question. Briefly 
summarized, these replies are: 

(First Choice) 

Professional Inspiration 39 

Methods of Instruction 25 

Wider professional Reading 6 

Social Contacts 12 

Discussion immediate school Problems 6 

Esprit de Corps 6 

Higher ideals 3 

New Movements in Education 1 

Entertainment 1 

It will be noticed that there are 97 choices. Some gave several 
choices. In both questions — 14 and 24 — there is an agreement as to 
what the county superintendents regard as the chief aims of the 
institute — professional inspiration and methods of instruction. It is 
a coincident, as will be noticed in Chapter IV "Analysis of Institute 
Programs" that the materials classified as "General" and Specific" 
agree closely in per cent with these two aims as indicated by the per 
centum of preferences. It is rather curious that the county superin- 
tendents in ranking aims and in giving aims in the two inquiries 
made, hardly indicate or even intimate that some valuable aims of the 
Institute might be such items as "the discussion of immediate school 
problems," "professional solidarity," "exchanging of ideas among 
teachers," "social contacts," or, indeed, "new movements in educa- 
tion." A few typical expressions of what county superintendents 
regard as the "aim and purpose of the institute" are selected and 
given here. 

AIM AND PURPOSE OF INSTITUTE 

(Extracts from County Superintendents' Replies) 

"They inspire the teachers and give help along practical lines." 
"Methods in a measure, but inspirational never-the-less." 
"To inspire; to train; to check the approach to the dead hnes." 



26 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

"To lead all teachers to an appreciation of the higher ideals of the teachers, 
information for the beginner, method for the weak, inspiration for the despondent, 
correction for the superficial, and justification for the earnest and faithful." 

"To increase the efficiency of the teachers." 

"Inspiration, morale, uplift, vision, and social contact." 

"You ask so many questions that can have but answer, inspiration." 

"Assistance in methods, encouragement and inspiration." 

"To inspire, enthuse and awaken." 

"A county convention of teachers, or school rally for the cultivation of professional 
consciousness, to get renewed inspiration a study of big public questions, the promo- 
tion of educational propaganda and a brief course in methods — especially in new devel- 
opments in methods, the promotion of professional reading and bringing the classroom 
teacher into contact with agents, for educational journals, booklets and devices." 

"Professional inspiration and fraternal consciousness. To create a wholesome 
public attitude. (Newspapers)" 

"To put the public educational interests upon a sounder and better foundation 
and better enable them to meet the purposes for which they are established." 

"Largely inspirational; some method; building higher ideals." 

"They instruct, entertain, and inspire." 

"Largely incentive." 

"Professional inspiration, and a social uplift to some." 

"To aid the State Department in advancing educational program. Bettering 
school conditions — broadening horizon." 

"To inspire the teachers to best effort." 

"To give inspiration, to give pedagogical instruction, to secure unity of purpose in 
the teaching corps, to exchange experiences and ideas." 

"Professional inspiration, opportunity for teachers to meet in conferences to dis- 
cuss school problems." 

"Professional inspiration, better methods, and to be allied professionally." 

"Inspiration. To me it seems to be out of the question to organize a 'university' 
or even a school of methods for a five day term of instruction. The County institute 
is a 'get together' meeting of teachers of inspiration, discussion, comparison of ideas, 
etc." 

"Give professional inspiration. Instruct in methods and management." 

"Making the county system of schools more unified." 

"To give teachers a vision of their work, to offer methods of instruction, to broaden 
their views educationally, etc." 

"Professional inspiration helps in solving practically all school problems." 

District Superintendents 

The same questionnaire was submitted to district superintendents 
and a number of supervising principals in the state. In all 103 
answered the questionnaire. Questions 14 and 24 (q.v.) bearing on 
the aims and functions of the institute were fully answered. Table 
2 gives the preferences of ways in which the institute may help 
teachers. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 27 

Table II — Ways in Which Institute May Help Teachers 

(Aims) 
District Superintendents (93) 
Supervising Principals ( 10) 

Rank or Preference 

Ways First Second Third Fourth Fifth 

a. Subject matter 6 10 5 4 10 

b. Methods 21 17 11 10 5 

c. Prof. Inspiration 35 15 6 3 9 

d. Better Discipline 13 ?> i 6 

e. Reading 4 14 11 5 17 

f. Social Contacts 6 10 10 9 6 

g. Exchange Ideas 10 7 20 11 7 

h. Community Uplift 2 13 8 5 4 

i. Immediate Problem 11 4 8 13 7 

j. Opportunity to meet superintendent 5 5 4 13 10 

101 98 86 76 81 

The following table of summaries to question 14 reveals that the 
five chief aims of the institute in the judgment of these supervisory- 
officials are: 

1. Professional inspiration, 35 first choice 

2. Methods, 21 first choice 

3. Discussion of Immediate, 

School Problems, 11 first choice 

4. Exchange of ideas, 10 first choice 

5. Social contacts, 6 first choice 

It is evident that the county superintendents and the district 
superintendents agree in their selection of aims as far as the first two 
aims are concerned, professional inspiration, and methods. The dis- 
trict superintendents would add the discussion of immediate school 
problems as the third aim. The weighting of these rankings by the 
same method by which the rankings of the county superintendents 
was made will not change the order of preferred aims or purposes. 
It is clear, however, that while fifty per cent of the first choice of the 
county officials is professional inspiration, that of the district super- 
intendents for the same aim is only 33 per cent. The district superin- 
tendents would allow 20 per cent of first choice to methods, against 
the county superintendents' 12 per cent. 



28 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

The replies of the district superintendents to question 24 on aim 
can be determined by giving a few typical replies from the 70 given. 
It is manifest that some of these aims are more or less sarcastic expres- 
sions and indicate that they think there is a lack of any specific aim. 

Aim and Purpose of Institute 

"Entertainment rather than instruction." 

"To dignify and uphft the teachers thru instruction in importance of work and 
philosophy of education, school work and problems with suggested solutions, to give 
inspiration." 

"Improvement of the teacher." 

"Inspiration." 

"They serve chiefly as a means for the county superintendent to reach his teachers 
with instructions, information, etc." 

"Hard to define. Presumably to improve teaching. Greatest value, the inspira- 
tion." 

"I have not been able to discover the aim." 

"CompHance with law. Professional inspiration and social contact." 

"Entertainment for the average county institute; no real aim." 

"To continue the traditions of the school system." 

"Carrying out the law in one way or another. Great variety of interpretation of 
the law. We had 10 sessions. Some have only eight and count it ten. Of course, the 
supposed aim is betterment of teacher." 

"Ancient custom; part of law. Some gentlemen of influence draw pay as instruc- 
tors." 

"Inspiration, rarely anything else." 

"To serve as a camouflage; to fool the people; to aid county superintendents in 
gaining desired ends." 

"I don't think there is any aim or purpose except a blind antiquated fulfilling of 
the school code." 

"To instruct and to give teacher professional inspiration." 

"Aid inexperienced teachers. Enthuse aU teachers with greater desire for welfare 
of children." 

"Improvement of method. Give inspiration to teachers and develop professional 
spirit." 

"To be of inspirational and specific help to new and old teachers." 

"The promotion of good will among teachers and of professional inspiration." 

"Inspiration, development of professional spirit, and instruction in methods." 

"Inspiration and instruction of rural, one room teachers." 

"Improvement of teachers." 

"To broaden the viewpoint of the teacher and enable her to realize her possibili- 
ties." 

"Professional improvement; better methods, for an appreciation of higher spiritual 
values." 

"A compliance with the Code on the part of the average teacher. A means of 
earning additional money of the part of the average lecturer." 

"Inspiration, methods, encouragement." 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 29 

"Really it would appear from most of the programs that they were being held 
to comply with the law. I feel that the real purpose is to improve the schools and assist 
teachers. The weakness of the whole system is that there is no well defined consensus 
of either opinion or action in the preparation of programs. Personal opinion decides." 

"The aim is to bring before all teachers the new movements. The big movements 
and purposes of your own system." 

"Teach teachers how to teach school." 

"To help in removing the weak places in school work. Thru exhibitions of the 
best regular school work, to instruct, stimulate and inspire teachers, and at the same 
time to win the sympathy, appreciation, and co-operation." 

"Means of hearing big men, means of getting together, practical problems worked 
out." 

A summary of these replies show that 31 think "inspiration" 
is the aim; 8 "methods of teaching"; 8 "instructions in subject mat- 
ter"; 3 entertainment; 3 improvement of teachers; 2 that they serve 
the county superintendents' purposes; 5 that the aim is traditional 
or meant to carry out the law; 4 say there is no aim. 

Aim as Revealed by Principals, Supervising Principals 

Two hundred out of 368 supervising principals and principals to 
whom a questionnaire (q.v. in appendix) was sent answered it. One 
of the questions bore indirectly on the present aim of the institute 
program, which should reveal the aim of the institute. The summary 
of the replies to question No. 2 is: 

Professional spirit (first choice) 140 

Understanding new movements in education 131 

Methods of teaching 79 

Impetus for professional reading 75 

Too much stress cannot be placed on this information since the ques- 
tion asked for the ways in which the institute actually functioned as 
an agency in training teachers in service. The answers, there is rea- 
son to think, are rather father to the wish, for an analysis of the pro- 
grams of this same year (see Chapter IV) does not support the above 
information. However, the replies do indicate that these minor 
supervisory official also regard "professional spirit" as a major aim 
of the present day institute, thus agreeing with county superintend- 
ents and the district superintendents, many of the latter also answer- 
ing this same inquiry. 

Aims as Revealed Through Teachers' Judgments 

In the later questionnaires submitted to teachers in four third 
class districts and two counties and to a group of teachers at State 



30 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

College in the summer session of 1921, representing nearly every 
county in the State, were questions on the present and ideal aims. 
In all 682 teachers answered the two questions bearing on the Present 
and Ideal aim. The question bearing on the present aim was as 
follows: 

Check in blank spaces the three most valuable contributions to the teacher actually 
made by the institute, using numeral 1 for the most valuable contribution, 2 for the sec- 
ond, 3 for the third. 

The summary of answers to the first, second, and third choices to 
this question is: 

First Choice — group exclusive State College 

Professional inspiration 170 

Methods of Teaching 64 

Subject Matter 45 

Second Choice — group exclusive State College 

Professional Inspiration • 107 

Methods of Teaching 98 

Discussion of Immediate School Problems 79 

Exchange of Ideas 67 

Third Choice — group exclusive State College 

Discussion of Immediate School Problems 89 

Exchange of Ideas among Teachers 73 

Methods of Teaching 63 

Social Contacts 57 

It is very evident that this group of teachers places professional 
inspiration and methods of teaching as the dominant present aims of 
institutes, with a smattering of preferences for the discussion of 
immediate school problems and exchange of ideas. 

The State College group (132 in aU) is given separately because it was a selected 
group attending summer school and probably influenced by this fact. Their first 
choices are as follows: — Professional inspiration, 59; methods of teaching, 21; dis- 
cussion of immediate school problems, 16; knowledge of subject matter, 11; exchange 
of ideas, 15; conference with county superintendent and social contacts, each 5. 

The judgment of this small group should be of considerable value in 
that they were a group bent on improvement and, no doubt, appre- 
ciated the significant contribution of any agency to improve teachers. 
It is clear that the judgment of this selected group places "profes- 
sional inspiration" by far the most dominant present aim, with very 
little assignments to methods or discussion of school problems. 



COUNTY TEACHERS INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



31 



Ideal Aim as Revealed Through Teachers^ Judgments 
Before giving the results of the answers of 2300 teachers to this 
same question on a questionnaire, that did not have the question — 
No. 12— bearing on the ideal aim, we shall examine the summary of 
the replies to this question of what the aim should be: 

Mark 1 for what you think should be the most valuable feature of the institute, 
2 for second, 3 for third, (q. v. appendix) 

This question was answered by 450 teachers in the districts and 
counties as already mentioned and by 132 teachers at State College 
summer session, 1921. The summary is as follows: 

First Choice {450) exclusive State College group 

Methods of Teaching 193 

Professional Inspiration 146 

New Movements in Education 65 

Subject Matter 29 

Exchange of Ideas 28 

Discussion Immediate School Problems 13 

Social Contacts 13 

Second Choice — {450) exclusive State College group 

New Movements in Education 116 

Professional Spirit 91 

Exchange of Ideas 90 

IMethods of Teaching 92 

Subject Matter 48 

Discussion Immediate School Problems 19 

Social Contacts 19 

Third Choice — {450) exclusive State College group 

New Movements in Education 131 

Methods of Teaching 73 

Exchange of Ideas 73 

Professional Spirit 63 

Subject Matter 60 

Discussion Immediate School Problems 14 

Social Contacts 38 

The summary of replies of the State College group is: 



Development of professional spirit 

Methods of Teaching 

Explanation of New Movements 

Exchange of Ideas 

Discussion Immediate School Problems 

Knowledge Subject Matter 

Social Contacts 



First 


Second 


Third 


Weighted 
Points 


41 


23 


20 


189 


37 


25 


15 


176 


24 


39 


10 


160 


13 


16 


26 


97 


9 


39 


37 


142 


6 


7 


11 


43 


2 


6 


10 


28 



32 



COUNTY TEACHERS INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



Combining these two groups that had the opportunity of answering 
both questions, one on the present aim as revealed thru the Insti- 
tute's contribution, and one on what the most valuable feature should 
be, we have the following result of first choices for ideal aim: 

Methods of Teaching 230 

Professional Inspiration 187 

Explanation New Movements in Education 89 

In the table given below we have combined the first choices for what 
may be regarded as the present aim and the ideal aim, as represented 
by the replies of the two groups just discussed, or 582 replies in all: 

Table III — Contrast Preferences for Aims 



Items or Aims 







Ideal 




Present Aim 
First Choice 


First 


Aim 
Second 


Third 


229 


187 


114 


80 


153 


230 


117 


86 


80 


22 


58 


75 


56 


35 


55 


71 




89 


155 


141 


45 


41 


106 


50 


15 


15 


25 


50 


14 









Weighted 
Points 



Professional Inspiration 

Methods of Teaching 

Discussion Immediate School Problems. . . 

Subject Matter 

Explanation new Movements in Education 

Exchange of Ideas 

Social Contacts 

Conference Opportunities'' 



869 
1010 

257 
286 
718 
434 
145 



In Table III no consideration is given to the second and third choices 
which in a strictly scientific study should be taken account of. Giv- 
ing the first, second, and third choices of ideal aims a weighting of 
three (3) points for first choice, two (2) for second, and one (1) for 
third choice, the results are not materially affected so far as the order 
is concerned. These weighted choices are as follows and can be used 
as considerable assistance in arriving at a composite aim: 
Table IV — Weighted Choices — ^Three Aims 



Aim 



Present 



Ideal 



Professional Inspiration 831 

Methods of Teaching '. 739 

Discussion School Problems 455 

Explanation New Movements 



718 
863 

466 



^ Item not included in Question No. 9. We would expect very httle preference 
of contribution under this question since only 14% of the programs were devoted 
to what might be called "new movements." See Chapter 12 on "The Institute Pro- 
gram." 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



33 



Before attempting to interpret Table IV we shall give the result 
of the replies of 200 district superintendents, supervising principals 
and principals to the same inquiry as to "what should be the most 
valuable feature of the Institute." (Question 5 in Questionnaire 
"c," q.v. in Appendix.) 

Table V — Ideal Aim as Revealed by 200 Supervisory Officials 
Aims First Second Third Wt. Points 



Methods of Teaching 

Development of Professional Spirit 

Knowledge Subject Matter 

Exchange of Ideas 

Social Contacts among Teachers 

Explanation New Movements in Education . . . 
Discussion School Problems 



First 


Second 


Third 


64 


22 


15 


63 


45 


26 


3 


5 


9 


19 


44 


35 


3 


18 


18 


32 


47 


51 


19 


21 


34 



251 
305 

28 
161 

63 
241 
114 



Table VI (a) — Table For Question 9. — Part i 



County 


(a) Knowledge 
of Subject 
Matter 


(b) Methods 
of Teaching 


(c) Prof. In- 
spiration 


Conference 
with Co. 
Supt. 




I II 


III 


I 


II 


III 


I 


II 


III 


I II III 


Berks 


25 21 

21 40 

9 6 

29 11 

3 7 
9 2 

61 8 
61 18 
10 6 

4 4 
3 1 

43 46 


32 
35 
10 
22 
5 

19 
22 
18 
15 
2 
3 
24 


114 

75 
54 
74 
18 
42 
129 
68 
32 
13 
10 
48 


78 
114 
26 
59 
18 
29 
74 
75 
14 
14 
11 
78 


31 
45 
24 
27 
14 
13 
38 
23 
11 
8 
12 
46 


91 

50 
50 
83 
48 
50 
158 
118 
37 
26 
45 
57 


67 
47 
27 
49 
21 
19 
77 
53 
16 
6 
7 
43 


33 

22 

26 

28 

6 

13 

48 

48 

9 

7 

7 

23 


2 18 10 


Bucks 


15 8 


Chester 


13 6 


Clearfield 


6 11 14 


Delaware 


1 2 4 


Monroe 


2 2 


Montgomery 




Northampton 


21 55 60 


Northumberland 

Perry 


3 2 4 
1 2 


Susquehanna .... 


1 3 


Westmoreland 


4 . 3 




278 170 


207 


677 


590 


292 


813 


432 


270 


40 107 116 


Abington 


3 5 
2 3 
1 

2 


1 
1 

3 

5 


15 
2 
7 
2 


11 

3 

7 
4 


10 

1 
7 
7 


18 
8 
8 

16 


17 
3 

13 
9 


7 

2 
2 


1 1 


Beaver 


2 


Kane 




Lock Haven 










6 10 


10 


26 


25 


25 


50 


42 


11 


3 1 


Total 


284 180 


217 


703 


615 


317 


863 


474 


281 


40 110 117 



34 



COUNTY TEACHERS INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



Question No. 9 — "What do you regard as the most valuable 
contributions to the teacher actually made by the Institute," while 
not bearing directly on the aim, does give some revelation of the 
present working aim as revealed by the actual work of the Institute 
as judged by teachers who attend the Institute. In all 2305 teachers 
answered this question. Table VI below gives the results with first, 
second, and third preferences. 

Table VI — (b) — Table for Question 9 — Part II 



County- 


Exchange of 
Ideas 

I II III 


Discussion of 
School Prob- 
lems 
I II III 


Social Contacts 
for Teachers 

I II III 


Berks 


18 

6 

27 

10 

8 

3 

23 

17 

3 

6 

4 

10 


70 60 
62 71 
48 21 
22 30 
12 15 

20 12 
70 88 
59 67 
28 14 
16 11 

21 17 
34 38 


21 65 78 
23 76 97 
20 44 42 
26 43 54 

6 20 22 
10 25 28 
44 83 106 

7 13 43 
12 14 12 

6 8 9 

7 21 13 
12 44 62 


9 

2 
2 

5 
2 
7 
1 
4 

1 
1 


18 76 


Bucks 


16 77 


Chester 


8 28 


Clearfield 


19 29 


Delaware 


6 21 


Monroe 


7 18 


Montgomery 


11 48 


Northampton 


4 6 


Northumberland 

Perry 


4 11 
6 18 


Susquehanna 


4 12 


Westmoreland 


15 56 




140 


462 444 


194 456 566 


34 


118 400 


Abington 


6 
3 
2 
6 


10 11 

5 
4 11 
3 2 


8 7 8 

1 8 2 

11 3 4 

6 4 8 


2 

1 

1 


10 


Beaver 


4 


Kane 


2 1 


Lock Haven 


5 2 








17 


17 29 


26 22 23 


4 


7 17 


Total 


157 


479 473 


220 478 589 


38 


125 417 







In order to reduce these preferences to a common basis, the Table 
below has been constructed, again assigning a purely arbitrary value 
of three (3) to first choice, two (2) to second, and one (1) to third 
choice. It is clear, too, that this weighting does not affect the rank- 
ing of the contributions: 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



35 



Table VII — Weighted Choices of Contributions of Institute 
(2305 Teachers) 



Contribution 



Rank 


First 


Second 


Third 


(2) 


703 


615 


317 


(1) 


863 


474 


281 


(3) 


220 


478 


589 


(5) 


284 


180 


217 


(7) 


40 


110 


117 


(4) 


157 


479 


473 


(6) 


38 


125 


417 



Weighted 
Points 



Methods of Teaching 

Professional Inspiration 

Discussion Immediate School 

Problem 

Subject Matter 

Conference with Co. Supt 

Exchange of Ideas 

Social Contact for Teachers. . . . 



3656 
3818 

2205 
1429 

457 
1902 

743 



Table VII is self-interpreting. Teachers in the Pennsylvania Insti- 
tutes in which the inquiry was circulated, give prominence to the 
following "actual contributions," which may be accepted as a fair 
index to the controlling aim or aims: Professional Inspiration, 26.8 
per ct.; Methods of Teaching, 25.7; Discussion Immediate School 
Problems, 15.5 per ct.; Exchange of Ideas, 13.3 per ct., all others, 
19 . 7 per ct. 

A Composite Aim for Institutes 

Three interested factors have contributed thus far to the formula- 
tion of the aims of the institute as they are thru the revelation of 
what County and District Superintendents and Supervising Princi- 
pals — 368 in all from various parts of the state, — and 2437 teachers 
who answered the question bearing on this phase of our study, 
regarded as the contributions of the institute and what they regarded 
as the ideal aims. A composite aim from all these judgments will be 
set up statistically by giving the per centum of the dominant aims as 
given by each group. No justification is given for this aim and the 
method of arriving at it. It is simply set up as a possible assistance 
in arriving at aims. 

The table below has been arrived at by the weighting of the 
first, second, and third preferences. The only value claimed for this 
composite aim, statistically derived, is the light it may throw in 
formulating aims for the institute. It is apparent from this table of 
aims as expressed by per cents that the three predominating aims 
should be Methods of Teaching, Professional Inspiration, or Esprit 
de Corps, New Movements in Education, and a strong tendency 



36 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



Table VIII — Data For Composite Aim in Terms of a Per Cent Ratio to all 
Aims Given by Each Group 



Supt. 



Aims 



Present Aim 



Co. 

Supt. 
(65) 



Super. 

Officers 

(368) 



Teachers 
(2305) 



Ideal Aim 



Co. 

Supt. 
(65) 



Supv. 

Offic's 

(200) 



Teachers 

(582) 



Methods of Teaching 

Professional Inspiration 

Impetus to Prof. Reading .... 

Discussion School Problems 

Subject Matter , 

Exchange of Ideas , 

Social Contacts , 

Community Uplift 

Discipline Rural Schools 

Esprit de Corps 

New Movements in Education . 

Entertainment , 

Conference with Co. Supt 



16. 
29. 
9.2 

7. 
3.7 
8.6 
11. 
8. 
7.1 



19.9 
29.9 
13.1 

4. 

4.5 

5. 
5. 
1.8 

13.8 



25.7 
26.8 

15.5 
10. 
13.3 
5.2 



25.2 
39.4 

6. 

6. 



12.1 



21.5 
26.2 

9.9 

2.1 

13.9 

5.5 



20.8 



27.1 
23.4 

6.9 

7.7 

11.7 

3.9 



19.3 



3.3 



towards the opportunity for the Exchange of Ideas. County Superin- 
tendents would put "professional inspiration" first, district superin- 
tendents and supervising principals would place the same aim first, 
but not with such predominating emphasis, while teachers would put 
"methods of teaching" first. County Superintendents and other 
supervisory officials would put "methods of teaching" second, 
whereas teachers would place this aim first. Teachers and super- 
visory ofiicials would stress "new movements" very much, while 
County Superintendents hardly mention this as an aim. The 
programs of the County Institute reveal very clearly that County 
Superintendents do not stress new movements, but rather "inspira- 
tion" and "methods." 

Aims as Revealed by Stale Authorities in U. S. 
An inquiry (See Appendix D) was also submitted to all the state 
superintendents in the U. S. with the view of determining the status 
of County Institutes in the Nation. One of the questions concerned 
the aim of institutes as shown by this question: 

To which of the following should Institutes confine themselves : 

a Methods of Teaching; b "Inspirational Lectures;" 

c Discussion of immediate school problems; d Rural 

Schools? 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 37 

The question did not call for a ranking of these "aims," tho a few 
replies attempted to rank them. 

In all 36 answered this particular question, the 46 replies out of 
48 possible replies were received. Out of these 36 replies, 25 checked 
all these aims; 31 checked "methods"; 26 "inspirational lectures;" 
34 "school problems"; 31 "rural schools"; 1 checked "methods" and 
"discussion of immediate school problems"; 1 checked "discussion of 
school problems," only; 3 checked "inspiration," "problems," and 
"methods"; 1, "inspiration" and "rural school"; 3 "methods," 
"problems," "rural problems," while 1 omitted "rural schools." 
Only six of the states that still held institutes, failed to answer the 
question. 

Of the superintendents that attempted a ranking of these four 
aims, one gave 60 per ct. to "methods," 20 per ct. to rural schools, 
and 10 per ct. to each of the others; one assigned 25 per ct. to each; 
one allowed five points to "methods," 2 points to "problems," 2 
points to "rural schools," and 1 point to "inspiration"; another gave 
first rank to "methods," second to "problems," third to "rural 
schools," fourth to "inspiration"; still another said that he would 
"rarely" assign anything to "inspirational lectures." In fact, the 
outstanding feature of those who ranked these four aims, was that 
"inspirational lectures" were always given lowest value. 

More valuable than the checking of these suggestive "aims" 
were the aims as given by the State Superintendents themselves or 
members of their departments in supplementary replies. A few of 
these are quoted as valuable in determining possible aims for Insti- 
tutes: 

Alabama — "The county institute needed in this state in particular should have as 
their function the promotion in the several counties of the state of such educational 
policies agreed upon by the State Department that are of state-wide significance." 

Florida— "The aim of these Institutes should be to bring about harmony and 
co-operation in the teaching force and inculcate spirit, solve the immediate problems 
of teaching, and make better teachers." 

Massachusetts — "Among the chief functions of the county institute should be 
mentioned the training of teachers in service through inspirational addresses and 
discussion of the most effective methods of instruction." 

Minnesota — "The present function of the institute is to inspire the teachers to 
take new ideals and ideas and use them in their schools. The methods or means of 
adapting these ideas to their local work must be exemplified and the teachers be 
made aware of their own abihty to do and their responsibility for doing." 



38 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

North Dakota — "This work is well set out by question No. 19. Each state will 
think of its own conditions. . . . Definite programs are worked on the things we 
find teachers need." 

Oregon — "A representative of the state department always attends these institutes 
(County) . Plans for the school year are given in the general assemblies and discussed in 
the various sections. At least one day of the institute is used in this way. Through 
this plan the State Superintendent, the County Supt., and the teachers keep in close 
touch and there is a spirit of co-operation that permeates the entire school work of the 
state. We usually have about one inspirational lecture each day and the balance of 
the time is divided between methods of teaching and the discussion of immediate 
school problems." 

Pennsylvania (1919) — "To unify the educational work in the county; to inspire 
teachers to do their best work; to help young and inexperienced teachers; to find out 
sound educational practice, then exchange experiences." 

Virginia — "Opportunity for the division superintendents to place before the 
teachers plans for the year. In other words, superintendent cannot well organize 
his schools without an institute. ... In many cases the institute is inspirational 
and leads to better co-operation in school activities." 

Washington — "in this state a great army of new teachers, who need the service of 
the institute, are entering the service. In this state it is practically the only oppor- 
tunity the superintendent has to meet and direct the teachers in the county. Many 
counties in this state are as large as some Eastern States." 

Texas — "To provide professional contacts for experienced teachers; training 
school for inexperienced teachers; oneness of purpose and spirit for all." 

Rhode Island — "Subjects for an institute should be determined by the needs of the 
teachers in the community." 

Illinois — "First of all the county institute should be for the purpose of outlining 
definitely the campaign for the work during the year. The county superintendent 
should meet the teachers under their supervision and present as clearly as possible 
the plans for the coming year. The purpose of the institute should be to inspire 
the teachers with the idea of the great work before them and encourage them to do 
their best. There should also be a clear presentation of methods of teaching the 
principal subjects which the teachers will have to teach. I do not regard public 
addresses whose chief aim is to amuse as worthwhile material in a teachers' institute." 

West Virginia — "There is need for the average teacher, grade and rural, for social 
and professional rejuvenation. In addition, the county institute serves as a teachers' 
meeting for the average county and is the only such meeting during the year. This 
would seem important because the county superintendent should have means of 
laying before his teachers the plans under which they will co-operate during the year's 
work." 

The statement of these aims can be accepted without much 
comment. They may be summed up, however, in a few words — lay- 
ing before teachers the year's plans, familiarizing teachers with new 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 39 

methods of teaching, developing professional zeal, and service as a 
teachers' meeting. 

Aims of Institutes as Furnished by other Educators 

All the factors thus far employed in contributing to the definition 
and determination of the aims of institutes have been more or less 
interested and probably prejudiced one way or another. To obviate 
this diflSculty, an attempt is also made to derive the aims of teachers' 
institutes from another source. An inquiry (See Appendix, "e") 
was sent out in March 1922 to 28 prominent educators in this coun- 
try. Twenty-four of these have given their views on teachers' 
institutes fully and concisely. All these educators have had a 
national experience with institutes; most of them have known inti- 
mately of the Pennsylvania Institutes; six of these twenty-four 
are in Pennsylvania, two being Normal School principals who have 
appeared frequently on the institute platform; one is a prominent 
Normal School teacher; one is a school superintendent, while the 
fifth was formerly Professor of Education in one of our leading 
universities. Nine Deans of Schools of Education, one present 
member, and one former member of the U. S. Bureau of Education, 
both of whom have taken active parts in numerous state and local 
surveys, one former Commissioner of Education in the U. S., three 
prominent Professors of Education in three of our leading Univer- 
sities, one president of one of the largest Western State Universities, 
one publicist, and two State Commissioners of Education who had 
not answered the inquiry first sent to State Superintendents, have 
answered the last inquiry sent out. Question 5 in this inquiry con- 
cerns the aim of institutes: 

What, in your opinion, should be the highest aim or function of the County 
Institute? 

Because of the prominence of the sources, there will be given in 
full the replies of these persons. They are as follows: 

Specialist U. S. Bureau of Education — "It seems to me that the function of the 
teachers' institute should be to help broaden the views of teachers not only in the 
field of pedagogy but all related fields. The attention of teachers should be called to 
the most progressive movements in education." 

Former Specialist U. S. Bureau of Education — "Institute should be devoted largely 
to instruction by not over two instructors, with, of course, instructions from the 
County Superintendent relative to general questions of school administration. . . . 
Institute is very valuable to keep teachers interested professionally." 



40 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

Professor of Education — "The Institute should have two or three rather dis- 
tinguishable functions and these are so important that they can hardly be classified 
as higher or lower. The institute should be, to a certain extent, an inspirational force. 
By quite a different means it should also be a distinct training institution in certain 
specific matters of aim and methods. Third, it ought also to offer resources for the 
solution of particular problems encountered by teachers in the field. The teachers' 
institute must tie up with reading and other self -education to be permanently effec- 
tive." 

Professor of Education — "If five or more days of actual well organized conference 
and discussion of the professional problems can be organized, the institute would 
prove very much worth while." 

Dean of School of Education — "I think that the only way to make these institutes 
productive is to connect them with some carefully prepared work that is done before 
and after the institute." 

Dean of School of Education — "One or more county teachers' meetings for admin- 
istrative purposes, with, perhaps, one inspirational address at such a meeting. The 
meeting to be for one day — Sat., with two sessions, if necessary." 

Dean of School of Education — "To make teachers intelligent with reference to their 
function and to impress the responsibilities of the work of teachers upon the irresponsi- 
ble individuals that are to be found among the teachers of our schools." 

Dean of School of Education — "To create an interest in the modern and best 
things in Education with the hope that further preparation will follow." 

Dean of School of Education — "To stimulate the professional growth of teachers 
not to furnish factual material for teachers' examinations." 

Dean of School of Education — "I should say that the chief function of teachers' 
institute is to keep the whole corps of teachers alive and growing professionally and 
to set professional standards for the county or district which are considerably^ above 
the present attainments of the rank and file of teachers in those counties or districts." 

President of Large Western State University — "I do not believe we can ever entirely 
dispense with teachers' institutes of some sort. There are too many young teachers 
coming into teaching annually, who need to be instructed in the ways of managing 
schools, and who need additional information concerning the new aspects of the 
technique of teaching. Many of the older teachers, too, need to attend an institute 
of some sort to familiarize themselves with the changing aspects of public education. 
I would have few general meetings of the so-called inspirational sort, and more group 
meetings. Teachers should be classified on the basis of experience or training, or the 
type, of work that they are engaged in, and they should be together not to listen, 
but to work co-operatively the solution of some problems of common interest." 

State Commissioner of Education — "They serve as a means of impressing on 
teachers the magnitude and the dignity of the profession with which they are con- 
nected. This is a matter of no small value especially to be getting teachers and to 
teachers in small schools. . . . They likewise have unquestioned value in helping 
teachers to become better acquainted with technical methods of education. This last, 
I assume, may be regarded as their primary object." 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 41 

State Commissioner oj Education — "Real instruction; never real entertainment. 
Instructors should be licensed; the work is more difficult than that of the ordinary 
teacher, and not every one should be allowed to carry it on." 

Pennsylvania Normal School Principal — "1st: Professional training of teachers. 
2nd: Inspiration of teachers. 3rd: Development of educational sentiment in the 
community." 

Pennsylvania Normal School Principal — "It seems to me worth while to have 
teachers assemble at least once a year for several days at a time not as an institute 
but as an Assembly of teachers for the purpose of developing an esprit de corps, to 
hear members of the State Department, and to put themselves on record on educational 
problems locally and in the state." 

Pennsylvania Normal School Instructor, Director Training School — "There is value 
undoubtedly in caUing a group of teachers together in order to improve the esprit de 
corps, to map out general plans, to offer opportunities for intelligent reaction from the 
teachers, and to have a group check on various administrative or educational details." 

Official State Educational Association — "To develop a professional attitude on the 
part of teachers and to enable them to comprehend the meaning of education and 
the significance of their work. The laws of Pennsylvania offer the county superin- 
tendent unique opportunity for professional work with teachers at the County Insti- 
tute. Some utilize this opportunity up to 100%, some 0%." 

Piiblicist and Surveyor — "Exchange of high spots; practice and proposals; person- 
ality clinics; teacher confessionals; conferences between those who know and those 
who want to know; itinerant teacher universities which go to the teacher on the job 
instead of making her leave the job and work out an artificial relation to it." 

The aims as given by these authorities do not need any inter- 
pretation. The one feature common to all these proposed aims is 
specific organization for specific purposes. All the aims stress the 
ideal of professional improvement of teachers in service, the elimina- 
tion of the so-called ''inspirational address" by old time institute 
lecturers, and doubt is expressed as to the need of a five day Institute 
to carry out any of the aims set up. The aims as set up by these 
experts must be set up side with those set up by county superinten- 
dents, district superintendents, supervising principals, teachers, 
state superintendents or their representatives. In the concluding 
chapter of this investigation, these various aims w^ill be utilized in 
evolving suggestions and proposals for improving or changing the 
institute. 

This part of the study can be appropriately closed by a statement 
of the aims of institutes as formulated by "The Conference on Insti- 
tutes" held at the University of Illinois, Aug. 3-7, 1914. This aim, 
which calls for the meeting of teachers' needs is comprehensive. 
If teachers need greater professional zeal, or instruction in certain 



42 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

methods, or acquaintance with changing educational conditions, 
such should be the purpose or aim. The statement of this aim is 
put in Article I of the "Resolutions" passed by the Conference. 

The purpose of a teachers' institute is three-fold: (a) to instruct teachers in better 
ways of teaching and to add to their general knowledge; (b) to encourage and possibly 
to inspire teachers in their daily work by bringing them together for mutual acquain- 
tance and for the discussion of common problems, and by thus creating among them 
an effective esprit de corps; and (c) to give them fresh sense of their responsibilities 
and of the significance of their work to the welfare and progress of society."^ 

* Bulletin No. 11, University of 111. Report of Conference on Institutes, Dr. W. C. 
Bagley, Chairman, Op. Cit. 



CHAPTER III 

The Organization of the Institute 

Legal Basis 

Teachers' Institutes in Pennsylvania were legally called into 
being by the Act of April 9, 1867. This act made it mandatory upon 
the County Superintendent "to call upon and invite the teachers of 
the common schools, and other institutes of learning in his county, to 
assemble together and to organize themselves into a teachers' insti- 
tute, to be devoted to the improvement of teachers in the science, 
and art of education, to continue in session at least five days, includ- 
ing a half day for going and a half day for returning from the place 
of meeting of the said institute, and to be presided over by the 
county superintendent or by some one designated by him, and be 
subject in its general management to his control." 

It is to be noted that in the Act of 1867 the obligatory attendance 
of teachers upon the County Institute is not provided for. In the 
same act the superintendent "upon the assembling of the teachers' 
institute of his county, shall cause a roll of members to be prepared, 
which roll shall be called at least twice every day during the session 
of the institute, and all absentees to be carefully marked, and from 
which, upon the adjournment of the institute, he shall ascertain the 
exact number of teachers who were in attendance, and the length of 
time each attended, etc." The object of this carefully prepared roll 
was to determine how much the county treasurer was to pay the 
institute at the rate of $1 . 00 for every three days attended by teach- 
ers, provided the total amount did not exceed $200. 

For twenty years teachers attended institutes voluntarily and 
without being paid by their school districts unless their school boards 
voluntarily compensated them. In 1887 an act was passed authoriz- 
ing and requiring boards of school directors to pay their teachers for 
attending the sessions of the annual institute in their respective 
counties. The compensation as authorized in the act was to be not 
less than the per diem pay for actual teaching, "provided, that it 
shall not, in any case, exceed two dollars per diem." This rate of 
compensation continued as such until the new school code of 1911 

43 



44 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

increased the per diem compensation to three dollars and also pro- 
vided for an equal forfeiture on the part of the teacher for every day 
absent from the institute without a satisfactory excuse. The Act of 
1919 amended the Act of 1911 making the compensation of teachers 
for attendance at the annual institute, four dollars per diem. 

Several other important provisions bearing on the organization of 
the institute as provided for in the original Act of 1867 and the 
several subsequent acts relating to institutes must here be noted. 
The first is the provision of the Act of 1887 which allowed school 
districts with 75 teachers under a superintendent to organize an an- 
nual institute separate from the county institute and to claim county 
aid on the same basis as the county institute. The Act of 1895 
changed the number 75 to 50, while the Act of 1911 reduced this 
number to 40. The Acts of 1887 and 1895 allowed the county insti- 
tute to claim from the county treasury not less than $60 nor more 
than $200. This same allowance was granted to districts that 
decided to hold separate institutes. The Act of 1911 (School Law, 
Section 2101-2110) made the minimum allowance from the county 
treasury $100 and retained the old maximum of $200. It is thus 
evident that a district that employs a superintendent^ and 40 teachers 
may claim and receive from the county treasury at least $100, 
whereas at the rate of $1 . 00 for every three days attendance the 
district would be entitled to only $66.66. 

Two very important provisions of the several institute acts relat- 
ing to the time when the annual institute may be held deserve atten- 
tion. When the Act of 1887 empowered school districts that employ 
75 teachers and a superintendent, and the Act of 1895 reduced 
75 to 50, to hold separate annual institutes, no change was made in 
the time for holding the institutes. Institutes were to be called at 
the discretion of the Superintendent, county or district, and the 
institute was to "continue for five days." One half day was to be 
allowed for coming, and one half day for returning from the place of 
meeting, — pretty generous traveling provisions for teachers living 
in a city or borough. This discrepancy, however, was remedied by 
the Act of 1907 which introduced a time feature which creates many 
possibilities for the district institutes. This Act of April 4, 1907, 

^ It is interesting to note that Philadelphia does not hold a teachers' institute 
with salary allowance for teachers because Philadelphia does not regard itself as 
coming under the provision of the law since it is a city and not subject to any Co. 
Supt. Since there is no Co. Supt., therefore, no institute. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 45 

provided "that city and borough teachers' institutes may be held, 
thruout the school year, on any five days, or any ten half days, which 
the city or borough superintendent of schools may select for this 
purpose." This act and the reincorporation of it in the School Code 
of 1911 immediately raises the question whether or not the county 
institute must be held on five consecutive days, i.e. in one week, or 
whether or not it may be held on five different days, Saturdays for 
instance, or Fridays and Saturdays. This question was raised in the 
fall of 1918 when the epidemic of influenza either broke up or elimin- 
ated entirely some annual institutes. While a few county institutes 
were then held on five different Saturdays, it seems that if such 
construction could be placed on the Act of 1867, the Act of 1907 
giving districts that were holding separate institutes permission to 
hold institute on five separate days, would be superfluous. Aside 
from the desirability of holding a county institute two or three days 
at a time, the question of legality would immediately enter. It is 
every evident that an "annual institute" can be held only for five 
continuous days as provided by the law. 

In order to clear this matter up, an opinion was secured by the 
writer from the legal offices of the Department of Public Instruction 
on March 3, 1921, to the effect that "county institutes may only be 
legally held under the present statute on five consecutive days," 
This legal prohibition, unless removed, would per se prevent the 
holding of county institutes twice or three times during the year. 

It is to be noted also that the County Superintendent has abso- 
lute legal control over the organization of the institute in his county. 
The law provides for no control by the Department, which can, 
therefore, offer only suggestions for any features of its organization. 
The County Superintendent, therefore, has not only the control, 
but the responsibility for the character of his county institute. The 
only possible form of control that can at present be exercised over 
the County Institute by the State Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion lies in the annual report that the County Superintendent must 
submit to the State Superintendent. 

Having sketched the legal basis for teachers' county and district 
institutes in Pennsylvania, we can analyze the present status of their 
organization. This analysis is based primarily on the replies of the 
66 county superintendents to the questionnaire (q.v. appendix) on 
"The Status of Teachers' Institutes" and the County Institute 
Programs of 1919 and 1920. The replies to the questions bearing 



46 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

on organization were unusually complete and the source of error 
negligible, since the data deal for the most part with facts. 

The Time and Length of Holding County Institutes 

So far as it has been possible to find out county institutes have 
for many years been held on five consecutive days in one week. 
This is the law and the law has been followed in this respect, except 
in 1918-19 when the influenza epidemic made it impossible to 
observe the law. A careful investigation into the time of holding 
the county institutes shows that within the past five years no county 
institute has been held after the Christmas hohdays. In fact, they 
have all been held within a period of 16 weeks or four school months. 
In the year of 1916-17 county institutes were held as follows: 

a. 1 to 2 weeks before the opening of school 7 counties 

b. 1 to 4 weeks after the opening of school 7 counties 

c. 5 to 8 weeks after the opening of school 19 counties 

d. 9 to 12 weeks after the operiing of school 14 counties 

e. 13 to 15 weeks after the opening of school 19 counties 

The most frequent week in 1916-17 was the one beginning with 
Dec. 18; second most frequent, Nov. 13; third most frequent, Oct. 16. 
In the year 1917-18 county institutes were held as follows: 

a. 1 week before opening of schools 11 counties 

b. 1 to 4 weeks after the opening of schools 1 county 

c. 5 to 8 weeks after the opening of schools 20 counties 

d. 9 to 12 weeks after the opening of schools 14 counties 

e. 13 to 15 weeks after the opening of schools 20 counties 

The most frequent week in 1917-18 was the one beginning with Dec. 
15, with 13 institutes; the second most frequent were the weeks 
beginning with Oct. 27, Nov. 10, and Dec. 1, each with 7 institutes. 
In the year 1920 county institutes were held as follows: 

a. 1 week before opening of schools 13 counties 

b. 1 to 4 weeks after the opening of schools 1 county 

c. 5 to 8 weeks after the opening of schools 20 counties 

d. 9 to 12 weeks after the opening of schools 14 counties 

e. 12 to 15 weeks after the opening of schools 18 counties 

The most frequent weeks were the weeks beginning with Aug. 30 
and Dec. 20, with 9 and 8 institutes respectively; the second most 
frequent, the weeks beginning with Oct. 11, Oct. 25, and Nov. 29, 
each with 7 institutes; the third most frequent date was Oct. 18, with 5 
institutes. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 47 

A summary of the data given for the years 1916-17, 1917-18, and 
1920-21 would show the following: 

31 institutes held 1 week before the opening of schools. 
9 institutes held 1 to 4 weeks after the opening of schools. 
59 institutes held 5 to 8 weeks after the opening of schools. 
42 institutes held 9 to 12 weeks after the opening of schools. 
57 institutes held 13 to 15 weeks after the opening of schools. 

The most frequent date in the three years was the week before the 
Christmas holidays when 33 institutes were held. The most frequent 
periods for holding the institute in these three years was from 5 to 8 
weeks after the opening of school and from 12 to 15 weeks after. 

A study of the above table reveals the fact that the tendency to 
hold the institute before the opening of the schools has increased 
from 7 counties in 1916 to 13 counties in 1920; that 30 percentum of 
all the institutes were held either 5 to 8 weeks after the opening of 
the term, or 13 to 15 weeks after; and that 17 percentum were held the 
week before the Christmas season. In the three years named only 
9 institutes out of a possible 198 were held within four weeks after 
the opening of the schools. In 1921 eleven (11) institutes were held 
on or before Aug. 29th; and 9 on Dec. 19th, one week before Christ- 
mas. 

It is not so simple a matter to classify the dates on which the 
district institutes are held unless the dates are actually named for 
each institute. This is due to the wide latitude given the districts 
by the Act of 1907 which allows these institutes to meet on five 
different days or on 10 different half days. For instance, in 1916 
there were 44 separate institutes held by 50 districts. These were 
held thruout the year as follows: 

a. Fifteen on five separate days 

b. Two on ten half days 

c. Six on one to three days before opening of schools 

d. Nine some other time during the year 

e. Two on three to four days 

f . Nine on five days before opening of schools 

g. Three five days after schools opened. 

In 1919 of the dates as listed by the circular issued by the De- 
partment of Public Instruction, it is found that 18 district institutes 
met on 8 different dates for a period of one week, as follows: 

a. Eight on Aug. 25; b. One on Sept. 1 ; c. One on Sept. 2; d. One 
on Sept. 5; e. One on Sept. 8; f. One on Dec. 1; g. One on Dec. 11. 



48 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

The remaining 31 district institutes all met on different dates during 
the year. 

The year 1920 presents a situation of time as varied as the two 
other years studied. Of the 55 districts holding separate institutes, 
only 22 gave definite dates. (Dec. 1, 1920). Roughly, the dates for 
the district institutes in 1920 may be classified as follows: 

a. Aug. 23-27 4 institutes 

b. Aug. 30-Sept. 3 9 institutes 

c. Sept. 7, 8, Jan. 3, 4, 5 1 institute 

d. Oct. 11-15 1 institute 

e. Nov. 22-27 1 institute 

f . Nov. 29-Dec. 3 1 institute 

g. Different dates 9 institutes 

h. Five Saturdays 2 institutes 

i. Ten half days 2 institutes 

i. Ten half days 2 institutes 

j. First Friday and Saturday of each month 1 institute 

k. Between Sept. 1 and Jan. 1 1 institute 

1. Various week ends 1 institute 

m. Aug. 31-Sept. 3 and 2 half days later 1 institute 

n. Thruout the year 3 institutes 

o. Three times during the term 1 institute 

p. Sept. 6 and later 1 institute 

q. March 25 1 institute 

r. Aug. 24 1 institute 

s. Nov. 25, 26, Mar. 29, 30, 31 1 institute 

The remaining dates were not determined when the list of dates was 
secured from the Department. 

Much space has been given to the data bearing on the time for 
holding county and districts institutes because of its bearing on the 
functioning of the institute as an agency to improve teachers in the 
service or about to serve. The program will undoubtedly vary, or 
should, directly as the time when the institute is held. If the insti- 
tute is held before the schools open, not only the program, but the 
organization into sections will vary. The program should look 
ahead. If the institute is held weeks or months after the schools 
open, the whole program and departments may be built up around 
teachers' actual school room experiences and problems. That there 
are virtues in holding the institute before or after the schools open 
cannot be denied nor overlooked. That the institute may function 
better if held at intervals during the year is also a question worthy 
of consideration. For this reason the judgments of the county 



COU^fTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 49 

superintendents of Pennsylvania are worth having. In answer to 
question 1 (See Questionnaire in Appendix) as to the time preferred 
by county superintendents for holding the annual institute we find 
the following preferences: 

a. Before opening of the schools 29, or 45 per cent. (64 ans.) 

b. After opening of the schools 35, or 55 per cent. (64 ans.) 

c. One week before opening 13 (48 answers to c, d, e, f) 

d. One month after opening 15 

e. Two months after opening 16 

f . One week before Christmas 4 

Below are given in parallel columns the preferences of the county 
superintendents in the time for holding the institutes and the actual 
practice: 

Preferences Actual Practice — 3 yrs. 

a. Before opening of schools 45 per ct. 16 per ct. 

b. After opening of schools 55 per ct. 84 per ct. 

Because only 48 superintendents answered that part of the inquiry 
bearing on the actual time preferred in weeks before or after the 
opening of the schools, the comparison cannot be pushed any further 
tho it is obvious from the data at hand that the discrepancy between 
preference and practice is just as pronounced as it is in items a and 
b above. Thus only 4 out of 48 prefer the week before Christmas for 
institute whereas in practice in three years 33 institutes were held 
at this time— 12 in 1916, 13 in 1919, and 8 in 1920, an average of 11 
each year. Thirty-five district superintendents answered this ques- 
tion of preference of time with practically the same result — 40 per 
centum preferred the time before the opening of schools, 60 percentum 
after. 

We also have the judgment of 83 district superintendents and 
supervising principals as to their preference in the time of holding the 
county institute. Thirty-seven prefer the week before the opening of 
school, 46 sometime after. Fourteen also prefer the institute at 
regular intervals during the school year; a few three days before the 
schools open and several half days after the schools open. One 
superintendent prefers one half day at the end of each scholastic 
month; still another prefers 1 day before the opening of the term 
and then the second consecutive morning of six months. Very few 
of the borough and city superintendents advocate an institute cover- 
ing five consecutive days. For very obvious reasons, 57 county 



50 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

superintendents prefer the institute on five consecutive days, 4 on 
non-consecutive days. It is rather odd, too, that the four who prefer 
breaking up the institutes into non-consecutive days are from 
counties with very poor transportation facilities. 

Below are given reasons why some superintendents prefer holding 
the institute either before or after opening of the schools, and also 
reasons for the actual practice. 

Reasons for Holding It Before Opening of School 

"Teachers would have benefit of work done or given during entire term." 

"Teachers who are teaching their first term would receive more help from the 
institute on account of having actual teaching experience." 

"Get your inspiration before beginning the work." 

"It would then be possible to give the teachers plans and instructions for the 
year's work. This would be of great assistance to inexperienced teachers." 

"I always have a meeting of all those who are teaching for the first time before 
school begins. The other teachers prefer it later, as it is a change. Those who have 
never taught before are able to suit it to their experience." 

"I hold one week of teacher training, the week preceding the opening of institute 
for my young inexperienced teachers. Our schools are all filled with teachers before 
October first." 

"Wish to make preparations during summer and be able to take advantage of 
good road in visiting school." 

"The teachers can apply the helpful suggestions at the opening of their schools." 

"If 'all factors' named above is intended to include temperature and other atmos- 
pheric conditions, I would hold institute one week before opening of schools. It 
would enable advantages gained at county institute to be used entire school term." 

"The logical time for instruction and promulgation of plans, etc., etc." 

"The supt. can state to the teachers his aims." 

"If institutes were held before the opening of the schools, there would be no 
interruption of the work and help would be given at the best time." 

"Inspiration given teachers to begin work, new methods presented can be adapted 
to suit teacher's work. No break in school term on account of institute." 

"Gives opportunity to beginner teachers to get much needed help. Also to 
outhne and discuss for term." 

"If there is any outline in the institute beginning, teachers should have its benefit 
before opening school." 

Reasons for Holding It After Opening of School 

"Teachers are then looking for help; not necessary to close schools." 

"It is a change from the regular routine of work. About the middle of the term 
hold a school of methods before the opening of the schools." 

"My institutes being sectional, I want my teachers to get the benefit of this 
instruction and together with the inspiration received, do better work." 

"Avoid school interruption, and makes educational morale before struggle 
begins." 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 51 

"Have received one month's pay. Have taught long enough to feel need of meth- 
ods for their school work. Teachers know by this time what their needs are." 

"Beginners have learned some of the real problems of their schools; can seek 
definite and assimilate the help offered." 

"The new teachers get the week's setting of their problems in their new schools 
155 out of 228 one-room teachers were new this year." 

"It comes about the middle of the term when teachers need added incentive to do 
good work. We hold a school of methods at the beginning of term." 

"Many of our teachers cannot be secured much before first Monday of September, 
hence irregular opening of school. At this particular time of the year the people of 
city and the country have full time to attend the sessions of County institute." 

"Teachers have time enough to become conscious of their need. Supt. will have 
sufficient time to create proper attitude. (Meeting.)" 

"Inexperienced see their needs by that time. Others need that source of inspira- 
tion near the middle of term." 

"School of methods will precede opening of schools. One month after opening 
seems a fair length of time for teachers' problems to assume definite form." 

"To save closing schools. Young teachers have met their difficulties and can 
therefore derive benefit." 

"As teachers will then have met problems for which they seek, and besides, it 
will give the superintendents two months to organize the schools and hold local teachers' 
meetings to present method. The county institute is inspirational rather than aids in 
method." 

"Usual weather conditions." 

"Our institute attracts hundreds of patrons and is an educational force in the 
county; for this reason we hold it after farm work is done." 

"Problems have arisen. Institute should help solve them." 

"Teachers should receive first month's pay to finance expenses of the institute. 
Teachers will not be in touch with their immediate school problems until they teach 
a few weeks, hence will not know what to look for at the institute if held before opening 
of school and possibly obtain nothing from such an institute." 

"Young teachers of whom we have a number are more eager to learn after a 
month or two of actual experience. 

"A school of methods has been held in this county preceding the opening of 
schools every year since 1913." 

"By November the teachers have become interested in their work and are more 
in the spirit for receiving help. It suits our directors best." 

"To give the beginner teachers an opportunity to find out some of their problems." 

"Weather conditions are good and teachers are better able financially, to attend 
at that time. We have a great many teachers in rural communities." 

"Many of our girls are beginners with little or no training. They have no prob- 
lems before schools begin. One month after school they have many." 

"My first choice would be. Teachers then know their needs more fully. 
Have had month's pay to attend, buy books, subscribe for magazines. Weather 
is fine usually. Talent rather easy to secure at this time." 

"Give teachers a chance to compare with others. (Not too late to take up new 
movements.)" 



52 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

"1. All teachers will have a better conception of the real needs of their schools; 
2. August is usually too warm a month for big meetings; 3. Teachers usually need 
some cash to pay board and for periodicals at the County Institute." 

"After a month's experience teachers especially young ones, will appreciate 
answers to problems they have met." 

"Teachers' minds are interested in school work, and not in summer pleasure. 
Teachers had pay and the weather is more favorable." 

"We have it the week before Christmas. Precedent as much as anything. But we 
find it generally satisfactory, at least to the majority of the teachers, and the preference 
of the majority must be considered." 

"Their spirits have slackened. They receive inspiration and return the inspiration 
received at the beginning of the term. WUl not carry them through a period of 8 
months." 

"Teachers at the end of one month know what their real problems will be for the 
term. This is especially true of beginners." 

Reasons for Time Actually Held {After Opening of Schools) 

"Many teachers on account of purse cannot afford to attend until some salary 
is received." 

"Our institute is held the week prior to the hohdays." 

"It has always been held the week before Christmas." 

"More favorable attitude to receive instruction; children help parents in corn- 
husking time and potato-picking season." 

"Have been following custom for 40 years." 

"It has been customary to hold it in October for years. We plan to change this 
beginning Sept., 1920." 

"Teachers will come to the institute with problems. Evening entertainments can 
be provided better later." 

"Want of finances on part of teachers." 

"Two months and one week after opening; tradition, and the wish of the teachers." 

"It is held the week before Christmas. From custom; less breaks in school 
work; teachers need recreation and inspiration then." 

"It was postponed indefinitely last November because of the Influenza and 
great number of deaths. We can secure better hotel accommodations in the second 
week of November." 

"After farm work is done." 

"Court week and county fair both interfere." 

"For economic reasons." 

"Customs; may change any time." 

"Difficult to get instructors wanted at just that time. Must sandwich institute 
date between court dates on October." 

"Ours is held two months after opening; custom." 

"40% of the teachers in our institute come from Danville Boro. For local reasons 
Danville Board of Education prefers week before Christmas." 

"Because rural districts frequently do not have teachers hired by time borough 
schools begin." 

"Teachers are biased through custom." 

"Second Monday of October, because that has been the time for years." 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



53 



"I hold my institute the week prior to Christmas, for financial reasons. I tried 
to bring it 6 weeks earlier and lost money." 
"Hard to get good evening talent." 
"Chautauqua comes here late in August each year, so we wait until November." 

Teachers' Preferences for Time of Holding Institute 

Another important factor in the determination of the time pre- 
ferred for holding the institute is the teacher. In view of the con- 
stantly growing practice of teacher participation, in school policy 
formulation thru the organization of teachers' councils, this factor 
must be considered. A questionnaire (see Appendix) was submitted 
to teachers in twelve counties and four districts. One question had 
to do with the choice of time for holding the institute. Replies to 
this question were given by 2623 teachers and principals. The an- 
swers are tabulated below. 

Table IX — Teachers' Preferences for Time of Holding Institute 









When 




Time Pre- 


Time Pre- 


Actually 


County 


ferred — Before 


ferred — After 


Held 


Berks 


54 


323 


After 


Bucks 


9 


356 


After 


Chester 


13 


155 


After 


Clearfield 


94 


164 


After 


Delaware 


7 


80 


After 


Monroe 


9 


110 


After 


Montgomery 


336 


116 


Before 


Northampton 


30 


259 


After 


Northumberland .... 


12 


91 


After 


Perry 


26 


38 


After 


Susquehanna 


15 


49 


After 


Westmoreland 


81 


206 


After 




686 


• 1947 


Total 2633 


Districts 








Abington 


45 


8 


Before 


Beaver 


3 


10 


After 


Kane 


22 


10 


After 


Lock Haven 


13 


22 


After 









83 
Total 769 



50 



1997 



133 



2766 



54 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

It is very clear that 76 . 5 per cent of these teachers preferred the 
institute after schools open. It is also clear that teachers have in- 
variably expressed preference for the time as shown by time for 
holding their own institute. It is very difi&cult to get away from 
the power of suggestion. Most of the common reasons given by 
teachers for the time preferred for holding the institutes are given 
below: 

Teachers' Reasons for Holding Institute Before Opening of Schools 
"New ideas for the school year." 

"Break in school year prevented." (Most common reason.) 
"Inspiration for beginning work." 
"Aims of superintendent known." 
"Enthusiasm aroused." 
"Preparation received." 
"Advice desired before school opens." 
"Get a good start." 
"Suggestions applied early." 
"Methods for immediate use." 
"Link between school and vacation." 
"Better attitude for instruction." 
"Means a two weeks' loss to pupils." 
"Inspiration to new teachers." 
"Gives unity to work." 

It is interesting to note that of all the reasons given for holding 
the institute before schools open, not one has been the "opportunity 
of holding a conference with the county superintendent." In eight 
counties where 1500 teachers who answered the question bearing 
on the contribution of the institute to the teacher, only 14 gave "Con- 
ference with the County Superintendent" as a most valuable con- 
tribution. 

Teachers' Reasons for Holding Institute After Opening of Schools 

"Problems discovered." "Conditions better known." 

"Finances do not permit it." "Opportunity to learn problems." 

"Rest from teaching." ' "Recess valuable to teachers and 

pupils." 

"Cooler weather." "Remedy mistakes seen." 

"Relief for pupUs." "Know needs of pupils and self." 

"Summer plans interferred with." "Time to study problems." 

"Personal check on work." "Variety." 

"Teachers centrally located." "More inspiration." 

"Custom." "Accustomed to school atmosphere." 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 55 

Type of Institute 

Question 4 of the county superintendents' questionnaire (q.v. 
Appendix) on "The Status of County Teachers' Institutes" relates 
to the type of, or form of organization. In 1918 the types or forms of 
organization of the institutes were as follows: 

a. General Sessions only 34 

b. Half general, half sectional 30 

c. All sectional 

d. Other types — combinations of b and c. . 2 

Total 66 

The preferences of the county superintendents in the spring of 
1919 were in reply to the question. 

As follows: "If you could control all the factors determining the kind of institute 
you would have, check . . . the type you would select for the best interests of your 
schools." 

Types Preferences Practice 

a. General sessions, only 15 34 

b. Half general, half sectional 45 30 

c. All departmental 2 

d. Other kinds or types 3 2 

e. Unknown 1 

66 66 

It is easily evident that there was very little correlation between 
what was preferred and the actual practice. Because of the many 
conditions which exist in determining the type of institute held, the 
county superintendents gave their reasons for the type preferred and 
for the present form of organization. 

The reasons given by the county superintendents are self-explana- 
tory. Nearly all realize the advantages of the half sectional and 
half general session type of organization and prefer it, but, as has 
been pointed out, preference and practice did not agree. In 1920 
the Department of Public Instruction issued a bulletin on institutes 
in which it was urged that county institutes be departmentalized. 
Since the present inquiry in 1919, the number of departmentalized 
institutes has increased. In 1919 out of 49 institutes 32 were strictly 
general; 10 were partially general with 3 one half days or more 



56 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



sectional; 7 were partially sectional. In 1920, 29 were sectional, 
24 general. No data are available for remaining 13 institutes. In 
1921 no doubt more than 50 per cent were half general and half 
sectional. 

Teachers' Preferences of Type of Institute 

The other important factor bearing on the matter of the type of 
institute preferred is the teacher who must attend the institute. 
In all there were 2730 answers to the inquiry on the type of institute 
preferred. The result of this referendum is given in the table below. 

Table X — Type of Institute Preferred — County 
(Teachers) 



County 


Present 
Type 


Preference 
General 

Sessions 


Preference 

Half Gen. 

-Half Sect. 


All 
Sectional 


Berks 


Half S— G 
General 
Half S— G 
Half S— G 
Half S— G 
General 
Half S— G 
Half S— G 
General 
General 
General 
Half S— G 


120 

270 

7 

56 

1 

75 

31 

75 

53 

36 

10 

94 


245 

99 

147 

200 

84 

24 

396 

199 

43 

20 

43 

151 


Z2> 


Bucks 


3 


Chester 


11 


Clearfield 


3 


Delaware 


6 


Monroe 


6 


Montgomery 


13 


Northampton 


27 


Northumberland 


5 


Perry 


4 


Susquehanna 





Westmoreland 


7 










828 


1651 


118 


Districts 

Abington 




2 
7 

2 


48 

8 

28 

28 


2 


Beaver 





Kane 


5 


Lock Haven 


5 






Total 




11 
839 


112 
1763 


12 

130(2732) 







COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 57 

In the 12 counties where the questionnaire was given, several had 
both types, the all general sessions, and the half general, half sec- 
tional. The preponderating sentiment among the 2730 teachers 
seems to favor the second type, — half general, and half sectional. 

The general session type of institute is the type where all the 
teachers meet together, morning and afternoon, in one large auditor- 
ium to hear lectures on educational subjects and others. The 
second type provides that all the teachers shall meet together either 
morning or afternoon, or half of the morning or afternoon, and the 
rest of the time the teachers are divided into groups or departments 
to receive instruction suitable to their needs and wants. The all 
sectional type which in 1919 was very rare in Pennsylvania, pro- 
vides group programs all the time. There are varieties of the two 
leading types, but on the whole the teachers either meet together and 
receive the same instruction, or they are divided so that they may 
receive special instruction, part of the time, and instruction in sub- 
jects of general interest part of the time. 

A summary of the ansv/ers in the 12 counties and 4 districts 
gives 65% of the answers in favor of the half sectional and half 
general sessions plan. Only 5% of the teachers who replied to this 
question favored the all sectional type of institute, while 30% 
favored the general sessions type. 

A further analysis of these replies indicate that 698 teachers in 
the 12 counties prefer another type from the predominant one. 
This is 27% of the teachers replying to this question. 

Peculiar Forms or Types of Organization 

Since the general session-sectional type of county institute is 
increasing in number in Pennsylvania, it is important that we know 
the most common groupings of teachers as revealed by the programs 
of 1920-21. This is an obviously difficult thing to do because these 
sections or departments differ very much in the 53 counties studied, 
in which 30 are of the half-general and half-sectional type. How- 
ever, for convenience, the following generalization or summary will 
be given: 

(1) All the institutes at some time or other meet as one group or section. 

(2) There are 21 types of groups or sections found. 

(3) The differenl types with their frequencies are: 17 high schools; 19 rural; 12 
primary; 6 grammar; 8 grammar-high school; 1 rural and primary; 1 intermediate- 
primary; 2 P incipals; 1 Principals and high school; 3 beginners: 6 graded; 2 rural and 



58 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

grades; 2 three and four; 1 Iwo and three; 2 one and two; 5 five and six; 1 four and one; 
2 ungraded; 1 music; 5 intermediate; 1 five and twelve. Volunteer classes were found in 
one county. In two counties there appeared to be a few demonstration classes. 

It is thus seen that the groups that are the most clearly defined 
by their frequencies are the high school, grammar school, rural, and 
primary. These groups with some modification for local situations 
would appear to meet the majority of needs. It should be desirable, 
however, to follow rather closely the groupings used in the profes- 
sional training of teachers, viz., Primary, Intermediate, Junior High 
or Grammar School, and High School, and rural. With some slight 
modification this grouping should be adaptable in nearly all counties. 
The writer would suggest that teachers of grades 1 to 6 in rural schools 
be one group since the majority of such teachers will teach the first 
six grades; that rural teachers of grades 7 and 8, meet with other 
similar teachers, their problems being essentially the same; further- 
more, this grouping will logically fit in with the Junior High School 
group. Unless there are many principals, these might attend such 
groups as may interest them in their peculiar administrative capaci- 
ties. High School teachers in both urban and rural schools can 
easily meet together, for their problems have much in common. 

Four groups or sections in counties of average size and population 
should be sufficient. There appears to be some danger in over sec- 
tionalization, especially in counties that have less than 300 to 400 
teachers. 

There is at present in the county institute a lack of what is 
commonly known as "Demonstration" work. More should be pro- 
vided, in fact there is scarcely any of it now. Expert teachers should 
be provided for this work. In fact, stronger and more modern 
programs can be built up around Demonstration work, particularly 
if the Institute continues to be held for five days. A recent district 
institute has been developed entirely on this type.^ The plan merely 
brings the method of the training school to the teacher. It gives 
teachers a chance to react instead of compelling teachers to be reser- 
voirs to be pumped full by the instructor. The teacher needs self 
activity just as pupils do. By providing Demonstration work that 
requires follow-up study and preparation on the part of teachers, 
would give purpose and continuity to an institute program. 

* "A Different Institute," Dodd, Penna. Journal of Education, Feb. 1922. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 59 

Participation of Teachers in Shaping Institute Policies 

While institutes in Pennsylvania are not voluntary organizations, 
the county institute did spring from voluntary county associations 
in Pa. The law (Section 2101, School Law of Pa.) rather con- 
templates that teachers — "properly authorized committees of 
teachers" — shall assist in organizing the teachers' institutes. Accord- 
ingly, it is worth while to know the status of teacher participation in 
the organization of institutes in this state. To what extent do 
teachers contribute either in the active management of the county 
institute, or to what extent are they organized to carry out the work 
of the institute? This status can be determined largely from the 
organization of committees and other groups found. 

County Institute Committees 

In all but three of the counties there were found some committees, 
varying in number from 1 to 9. In only 1 1 counties was there found 
any executive committee or its equivalent. Such a committee would 
be the one immediately concerned or involved in teacher participa- 
tion, or in assisting in the administration and planning for the 
institute. We find that the dead were important enough to have 
necrology or memorial committees in 28 of the 53 counties studied 
in 1920, while 46 counties had resolutions committee. Seventeen 
(17) counties had committees on professional reading and literature, 
while 16 had committees on educational associations and meetings. 
One county had a committee on "field day"; one on high school 
entrance; several on local institutes; two on "School Patrons' Day"; 
one on "local history"; one county had a committee on "Educational 
Research" (Somerset). It would be interesting to know what this 
committee does, for it indicates a healthy sign. In only one county, 
however, was there a committee whose chief business was the county 
institute. A committee on "The Improvement of the Institute" 
was found in Chester County. A careful study of the institute 
program of this county reveals that this committee has evidently 
functioned. The institute offerings of Chester County are easily 
among the three best in the state. In Montgomery county the Execu- 
tive Committee has for the past few years taken an important part 
in institute programs and policies, with very good results in 
strengthening the program and general institute policy. 



60 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

Institute Program Making 

The task of making the institute program is a diflScult one, not 
only on account of arranging the subjects to be discussed, the fields 
to be covered, and the specific needs of the hour, but because of 
the lack of a central clearing house for the securing of instructors. 
Perhaps, one of the biggest problems of the superintendent is the 
securing of his "talent." He must depend more or less on his fellow 
superintendents' report of instructors whom they have had and whom 
they can recommend. Hence it is that instructors circulate pretty 
well around the state institutes in proportion to their good reports. 
Since the advent of the new administration this problem has been 
somewhat simplified because the Department of Public Instruction 
has been able to supply many of the instructors in order that they 
might explain the plans of the Department. But the securing of the 
right type of institute instructors is such a difficult task that one 
State Commissioner of Education has suggested that, as is the case 
in some Western States, institute instructors be licensed and the 
Department act as a central disbursing agency for these men. 

In view of this difficulty it is of some concern to know to what 
extent teachers share in the making of programs for the institute. 
Teacher participation thru various devices is to-day an important 
consideration in the professional growth of teachers. Does the 
institute offer any opportunity in co-operative teacher assistance 
in such a matter as the making of the program? Are they con- 
sulted about institute programs — a different matter from teacher 
participation? In 1919 the county superintendents furnished some 
interesting data: 

a. County Superintendents alone make program in 42 counties. 

b. County Superintendents and a committee make program in 8 counties. 

c. County Superintendents and a committee of principals make program in 6 
counties. 

d. County Superintendents and an Executive Committee make program in 7 
counties. 

e. County Superintendents consult with their assistants in 10 counties. 

f . County Superintendents with committee of principals, teachers, and directors 
in 1 county. 

It is evident from these data that the teachers of the counties are 
little consulted except to confirm programs already made. No doubt, 
the county superintendents to-day consult their assistants more than 
these data show. 



COUNIY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 61 

Only twenty-four county superintendents answered the question 
as to whether or not rural teachers are consulted about the programs 
designed for their own particular needs. Of these twenty-four, ten 
said they did not; fourteen, yes. Forty-two did not answer this 
inquiry, a fair indication that they did not. In several counties pre- 
institute meetings are held when the tentative rural program is 
presented. In a few counties the teachers are asked to offer sugges- 
tions on cards issued for that purpose — a practice which seems 
worthy of imitation. 

The fact remains, however, that there does not seem to be any 
regularly appointed agency to represent the rank and file in the 
making of institute programs. To what extent this failure affects 
the nature of the institute offerings, this study is not able to point 
out. Undoubtedly, such definite representation would give strength 
to the institute as an organization and make of it not only a legal, 
but also a co-operative association of teachers. 

The department or sectional programs likewise show this same 
lack of teacher participation in their arrangements. Out of 30 
counties where such meetings were held, nine failed to answer the 
inquiry. In 13 counties the superintendent made the department 
programs; in 4 the superintendent and his assistants; in 4 counties 
the superintendent and principals arranged the programs. And yet 
in this field of grouping teachers together according to their own 
particular fields lies the opportunity to organize effectively.' It is 
this lack of representation that in all probability gives the institute 
and the department programs that represent the professional activi- 
ties of the instructors secured, rather than that these programs and 
departments provide for strictly local needs to be met by securing 
instructors for the purpose. 

Methods of Instruction 
The Table XI below reflects the attitude of county superinten- 
dents on the type or method of instruction used. Fifty-three of these 
officials report that the lecture method is most extensively used in the 
general sessions; seventeen report demonstration classes in the 
general sessions, and 21 in the departmental meetings; only two 
report the round table conference plan. The attitude of the county 
officials coincides with the desires of teachers in the type of instruc- 

^ Snedden, D. "Professional Improvement of Teachers thru Organization," 
School and Society, Nov. 8, 1919, p. 533. 



62 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

tion desired. Fifty per cent of the teachers in 12 counties prefer 
the lecture method; 34 per cent prefer the demonstration class 
method, while 16 per cent prefer the conference and discussion plan. 
In view of the fact that in at least 80 per cent of all the institutes 
in the general and departmental sessions the lecture method alone is 
used it is pertinent to suggest that the other two methods — demon- 
stration and conference — be used more especially so since 1344 
teachers out of 2710 in 12 counties and four districts express a prefer- 
ence for these types. 

Table XI — Type or Method of iNStRUCTiON Employed 
(Superintendents) 

a. 53 report lecture method alone in General Sessions. 

b. 12 report lecture method alone in Departmental sections. 

c. 17 report demonstration method or lessons in General Sessions. 

d. 21 report demonstration lessons in Departmental Sections. 

e. 9 report lecture and discussions in General Sessions. 

f. 27 report lecture and discussions in Departmental Sections. 

g. 2 report Round Table Conferences. 

h. 1 reports voluntary conferences and instruction in special subjects before and 
after the regular sessions. 

It is to be borne in mind that teachers place much stress on their 
preferences for the ideal aim of the institute on methods of instruc- 
tion. (Table VI, Chapter II, "Institute Aims"). Methods of in- 
struction can be made much more effective when demonstrated. 
The hope of improving the institute program seems to lie largely in 
giving teachers demonstration work with classes of children in pro- 
gressive and modern methods. It is significant that this type of 
institute program has already been attempted in the Allentown City 
institute.* This institute stressed Demonstrations and Conferences, 
which are preferred by 50 per cent of the 2710 teachers answering 
this question. That the county institute program is deficient in 
Demonstration and Conference methods is very plainly evident 
from an examination of Table XI, which gives the county superin- 
tendents' reports. 

Type of Instruction Preferred hy Teachers 

In 11 counties and 4 districts 2710 answers were received on the 
question as to the type of instruction teachers prefer. It is very 

* Dodd, H. W., "A Different Kind of Institute," Penna. School Journal, Feb. 
1922, pp. 203-205. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



63 



evident that the majority prefer the lecture method. Table XII 
gives the result of this preferential. 

From Table XII it is evident that 50% of those answering this 
question preferred the lecture method; 34% the demonstration 
method, and 15% the conference method, or conference-discussion 
method. It is not the purpose here to discuss the relative values of 

Table XII — Method of Instruction Preferred 



County 


Lecture 


Demonstra- 
tion 


Conference- 
Discussion 


Bucks 

Berks 

Chester 


335 

184 
42 
94 
48 
62 

184 
51 
37 
51 

231 


36 

177 

111 

111 

40 

86 

144 

36 

33 

33 

67 


6 
91 
63 


Clearfield 


16 


Delaware 


36 


Monroe 


15 


Northampton 


58 


Northumberland 


12 


Perry 


18 


Susquehanna ! 


21 


Westmoreland 


46 








1319 


874 


382 


Districts 

Abington 


21 
8 
8 

10 


20 

5 

13 

16 


10 


Beaver 


1 


Kane 


12 


Lock Haven 


8 








47 


54 


31 


Total 


1366 


928 


413-2707 







any of these methods of presenting instruction to a group of teachers, 
but in the light of these replies we are confronted with the inquiry as 
to whether or not teachers really appreciate the possibilities and 
values of the institute when they to the extent of 50% of their 
number in the 1 1 counties where the poll was taken prefer a method 



64 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



of instruction where so little thinking on their part is necessary and 
where the possibilities of asking questions and of having their own 
problems answered are so little. Are teachers following the paths 
of little resistance? Should small groups or discussion conferences 
be organized in our institutes in order that teachers may receive 
some real human and tangible help? Or are teachers going to be 
merely receptacles for lecturers' stereotyped addresses, a good many 
of them platitudes on the virtues of the profession and "glory of the 
work we are engaged in?" However, there is some hope when we 
consider that nearly 50% have voted for the demonstration and 
conference plans. 

Provisions for Special Classes of Teachers 
If institutes are designed to meet specific needs of teachers, 
various classes of teachers are to be provided for. That is the main 
object of the sectional institute. Does the institute do this? Table 
XIII below shows that this is not done. 



Table XIII — Provisions por Special Classes of 


Teachers- 






Yes 


No 


No answer 


a. The Inexperienced 


24 
33 
35 

37 


37 
29 
28 
25 


5 


b. Grade Teachers 


4 


c. One Room Rural 


3 


d. High School 


4 







It is very evident that in at least 50% of the counties no provision 
is made for special direction for the inexperienced teacher, grade 
teachers, the one room rural and the high school. This is a good test 
of the efficiency and function of the institute. The county superin- 
tendents themselves furnished these data in 1919. Recent programs 
(see Chapter on Programs) show no improvement in this respect, 
altho it is natural to conclude that dividing the institute into sections 
for certain groups of teachers will provide to a greater degree mate- 
rials intended more especially for particular groups. The difficulty 
here, however, as is pointed out in the chapter on "The Pro- 
gram" is the use of the same instructors for the general sessions 
and sectional meetings, many of whom are not especially adapted 
for sectional work. 

5 Note: These replies were checked up as much as possible with the program of 
each county. Much charity was used in crediting "yes" as the answer in many cases. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 65 

Below are given examples of special provisions and opportunities 
for these groups of teachers: 

Examples of Special Provisions for Inexperienced Teachers — Grade, Rural, and High 
School as Reported by County Super inte^idents, 1919 

"Preliminary conference of one whole day immediately before opening of schools — 
not in connection with the county institute. Departmental sessions in connection 
with county institute. A conference of one whole day before the meeting of the county 
institute." 

"An attempt is made to make the program helpful to teachers of all grades. 
Book and supplies are on sale during week." 

"We hold a week of teacher training or week of method. We have special depart- 
ments for inexperienced teachers. This work is largely conducted by our own force 
supplemented by practical primary methods." 

"At times we have a specialist in method in some particular subject. Much of 
the work is inspirational." 

"Demonstration lessons by successful teachers. Special conferences for them." 
At least one instructor capable of conducting round table conferences." 

"For rural inexperiences, a special department for those teaching first or second 
year is addressed by specialists in primary; also volunteer groups; also conferences with 
Assistant Superintendent, Sections are as follows: Grades 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, High: 
Rural 1, Rural II; also a special section (four half days) for rural teachers with more 
than two years experience; a high school section. This is not going far enough. This 
year we had one hour each for English, Latin, Civics, and Commercial teachers." 

"We do this in School of Methods and local institutes." 

"Large part of program is adapted for grade and one room teachers." 

"We have a very small group. First and Second grade teachers in one section, 
third and fourth in another, fifth and sixth in another and high school." 

"We hold two day session of school of methods in August specially for beginners." 

"Preliminarj^ Institute." 

"One session for beginners." 

"Six forty-five minute periods are given for the instruction of grade teachers. 
All the teachers of the rural one room schools are given six forty-five minute periods. 
Six forty-five minute periods for high school teachers." 

"In a general way we make special provisions for the different grades of teachers." 

"Sectional work for first and second grades, third and fourth grades, grammar 
grades; sectional work for rural teachers; sectional work for high school teachers and a 
meeting of high school teachers' association." 

"We conduct for three or four days a school of methods the week before the 
schools open." 

"We make provision thru our school of methods, also by making the instruction 
practical." 

"I provide for them in making up program. I don't employ 'wind gammers,' 
I get instructors. AU grade teachers are divided into these departments, primary, 
intermediate, and grammar. Part of the instruction in Rural Department deals with 
this phase alone. We give them a department by themselves." 



66 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

"We hold a session lasting at least a full week before school opens for beginners. 
Our sectional meetings are always for graded work. By giving definite instruction to 
these in separate groups." 

The Institute Schedule — Distribution of Time 

The wise and economical use of time is an important considera- 
tion in any modern enterprise, whether industrial or educational or 
commercial. It is a well known principle of modern efficiency that 
lost motion and poor scheduling make for waste and inefficiency. 
This is known as the principle of despatching/ which presupposes 
careful planning in advance and then the realization of this plan. 
Closely allied with this principle of despatching is the principle of 
"standards and schedules,"'^ or that of clearly defining what is to 
be expected and then the carrying out of this plan punctually, accord- 
ing to a set program. Definite planning and scheduling are funda- 
mental to the execution of any aim. 

A careful examination of the scheduled programs of 53 county 
institutes held in 1920 does not, except in a very few instances, 
indicate that the principles of dispatch, and of standards and 
schedules are carried out to any extent. We are told by Emerson* 
that "the general dispatching efficiency, even of railroads, is not over 
40 per cent, yet there are few activities that do as well as railroads." 
While it would be a rash thing to state the exact per ct. of efficiency 
of institutes in the matter of scheduling, we are almost led to say 
with this authority in his comments on early railroad dispatching, 
that institute programs "started when they got ready, they arrived 
some time, and nobody knew where they were nor what route 
they were taking in between." 

Analysis of Time Schedules in Institutes 

In 31 counties out of 53 no specific time assignments for addresses 
are found; in 22 there was such assignment. It is, therefore, impos- 
sible to determine in 31 counties whether a speaker was limited to 
one-half hour, three-fourths of an hour, or an hour. In the 23 
counties where specific time assignments were indicated, 14 allowed 
40 to 45 minutes per period; 4 allowed 30 to 35 minutes; 3 allowed 50 
minutes; in remaining counties time was indefinite and variable. 

• Emerson, Harrington, "Twelve Principles of Efficiency." 
^ Emerson, Harrington, "Twelve Principles of Efficiency." 

* Emerson, Harrington, "Twelve Principles of Efficiency," pp. 250-51. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 67 

The number of institute periods varied very little in most of the 
counties studied. The usual number seems to be three (3) in the 
morning, and the same number in the afternoon, exclusive of the 
instructional periods in the sections. Twenty-one (21) report 3 
addresses in the morning; 17 two. The others vary so much that no 
summary is possible. In the afternoon twenty (20) report two 
each; twenty-five (25) three each. The others vary from 1 to 4. 
These instructional periods do not include music and intermission 
periods, many of which are found in some counties. 

The time of opening in the morning seems to be pretty uniform. 
Thirty-eight of the 53 open at 9 o'clock; six at 9:15; two at 8:30; 
five at 9:30; one at 8:45; one at 8 o'clock. With very few exceptions 
the institutes open in the afternoon at 1 :30, although a few convene 
at 1:45 or two o'clock. The institutes invariably continue until 11:45 
to 12 in the morning, and until 3:30 to 4 in the afternoon. 

Sections and Time Schedule 

An examination of the programs shows that the Pennsylvania 
institute is gradually increasing in the tendency to sectionalize. 
This tendency, however, is more apparent than real when an exami- 
nation of the time assigned to sections is made. Twenty-nine (29) 
of the fifty-three counties studied in 1920 show evidences of sections 
or departments. In only 7 of the counties were sectional meetings 
held parts of the morning and afternoons. The time when sectional 
meetings begin varies too much to generalize. However, about 
one-third of the counties that have such meetings, schedule them 
from 10 o'clock on; several at 11 o'clock. In 14 of the 29 counties, 
at least one or two addresses are delivered to the entire group before 
the institute adjourns for the assembling of sections, both in the 
morning and afternoon. In only a few counties does there seem to be 
a definite scheme of systemmatic time scheduling for the sectional 
meetings, resulting, it would appear, in much confusion and waste of 
time in breaking up the institute for these meetings. A better plan 
of scheduHng would be the specific use of the morning or afternoon 
for either the general session or for the sectional meetings. In several 
counties where effort was centered on all sectional meetings, one 
general address was ofifered early in the morning or afternoon session, 
followed by the assembhng of the department meetings. That the 
institute should at some time or other in the day meet as one group 
in order to carry out the general orders and directions of the superin- 



68 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

tendent and in order to maintain the general spirit of professional 
solidarity cannot be questioned. 

In no institute studied did it appear that more than 3 days or parts 
of days were devoted to sectional work. These days were Tuesday, 
Wednesday, and Thursday, usually the forenoons. In 9 counties 
this prevailed. In many counties only a few hours in the entire 
week were assigned to sections. In one or two counties sectional 
meetings were announced on the program, but there was no assign- 
ment of place or time. In fact, many sectional meetings even failed 
to name the place of meeting. Of course, it is realized that certain 
details of the institute might be and are announced verbally. It 
is to be questioned though whether or not institute programs should 
not be presented to teachers in a more definite way, particularly so if 
it is a departmentalize institute. Teachers should have the oppor- 
tunity of selecting in advance the work that they desire to take. 
It may be a wise thing for teachers actually to make out a program 
of what they want to do for the entire week. This was actuUy 
done at the model institute^ held for experimental purposes at the 
University of Illinois, Aug. 3-7, 1914. One of the outstanding char- 
acteristics of this experimental institute was the definiteness of its 
daily program. The periods were 45 minutes in the clear. Each 
instructor developed his week's work in one field of instruction, and 
outlined his work, which was presented to teachers so that they knew 
what to prepare for and how to follow it up. Examinations were 
given at the end of the week; note books were examined. Another 
feature of this same institute was the daily conference held by the 
instructors, the superintendents, and the conductor. The day's 
work was reviewed and discussed. 

Great Waste of Time 

An outstanding feature of nearly all the institute programs studied 
is the disproportionate time spent on music and "intermissions." 
The music was of the usual "drill" type, where a few songs were 
selected and then constantly "roted" thru. There appears to be no 
evidence that a really worth while piece of work was done on any 
serious selection so that the one week's work would show some 
results. In Delaware county it was the writer's privilege to observe 

8 Report "Conference Teachers' Institute," Univ. 111., Bull. No. 11, Published 
by University of Illinois. 



COUNTY TEACHEKS' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 69 

the result of such work on such a selection so that at the end of the 
week, the teachers had actually prepared a definite piece of work. 
This type of work not only gave rest and recreation, but developed 
co-operative group action thru music. 

Two counties were selected at random and carefully analyzed to 
see how much the institute had "planned" to spend on these two 
items — music and "intermissions." It was found that in one county 
nine (9) hours out of 22 were thus spent; in the other 5 out of n}/2- 
This means that 40 per cent in one and 30 per cent of the time in the 
other were thus consumed. We cannot deny that music is necessary 
in the institute and also a certain amount of "intermission." It is 
very questionable, however, whether such a large per cent, of the time 
should be so used. It is not far from mathematical accuracy to esti- 
mate that 25 per cent of the institutes' time is used up in this fashion. 

In accordance with the archaic provision of the county institute 
law allowing one-half day on Monday and one-half day on Friday 
for going to and returning from the institute, — a necessary provision 
before the days of rapid transit — all but two of the county institutes 
in 1920 convened Monday afternoon; all but four adjourned Friday 
noon. Bucks, Indiana, Green, and Lebanon continued until the end 
of Friday afternoon. Thus it happens that in the actual observance 
of the law, the county institute wastes 20 per cent of the time in 
transit, while at least 25 per cent of the time scheduled is consumed 
by the two items already mentioned. In accordance with the com- 
monly accepted principles of efficiency already alluded to — costs 
and dispatching — we must conclude that county institutes do not 
utilize their time to the best possible advantage. Fully one-fourth, 
possibly one-third, is wasted, which in terms of dollars and cents, 
amounts to the enormous amount of one quarter million of dollars. 
This instantly raises the question whether or not by more efficient 
scheduling of the program, and by the elimination of much extraneous 
matter that creeps into the institute program, the same amount of 
institute work could not be accomplished in two or three days 
instead of five, and at greater economy of teachers' nervous energy 
and time and money. 

The Evening Sessions 

One of the strongest claims of the county institute has been its 
influence on the public thru its evening sessions. Gradually, how- 
ever, the evening session is becoming a thing of the past. This is 



70 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

due in a large measure to modern conditions and facilities for trans- 
portation. In many counties the teachers do not remain over night 
in the county seat, but travel back and forth by train, trolley, and 
automobile in order to cut down the expenses of attending the 
institute. Then, too, the evening session is finding it a difl&cult mat- 
ter to compete with other attractions. This is particularly true where 
the institute is held in fairly large communities. The inroads of the 
moving picture show has had its effects on these once popular ses- 
sions. In 1917 eleven of the 66 counties no longer held evening 
sessions. Seven institutes had only two; six had three; thirty-five 
had 4; while 5 alone had five each. Of the forty-four district insti- 
tutes held, fourteen had no evening sessions at all, while 10 had one 
each; five had two; five had three; one had four; five had five each. 

To show how important a bearing good transportation facilities 
have on evening session, it may be said that 11 of the 12 counties 
that report very good transportation facilities have abolished the 
evening sessions; twenty- two counties report good transportation 
facilities to the place of meeting; thirteen fair; fifteen poor. Natur- 
ally, evening sessions are still popular in those county seats that are 
far removed from large centers of population, or where a definite 
and permanent interest in these sessions has become a tradition. 

The attitude of the teachers and the public towards evening 
sessions as gauged by the county superintendents is as follows: 

Forty-six county superintendents think that the public is in favor 
of evening sessions, fifteen think it is not, while five are either doubt- 
ful or do not express themselves. Fifty-five county superintendents 
think that the teachers are in favor of these sessions, while 11 think 
they are not in favor. Here again the opinion and wishes of the 2358 
teachers who expressed their attitude on this is important. (See 
Table XIV.) 

The table shows that 1500 or 63 per cent out of 2358 teachers 
favor evening sessions. A further analysis of their replies shows 
that a very large majority prefer one serious and one light lecture; 
while 500 express preference for at least one entertainment, 852 
prefer two entertainments. A fairly representative group express 
themselves as being in favor of high class musical entertainments. 

Of the 12 counties where the questionnaire was presented, only 
two where fairly good transportation facilities exist, answered favor- 
ably to the evening session; the remaining ten expressed rather pro- 
nounced sentiment in favor of the evening sessions. These two 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



71 





Table XIV — Evening Sessions (Teachers) 






Pref. 


Evg. 


Serious 


Led 




Light Lect. 


Entertainments 




Session 


Number 




Number 


Number 


County 


Yes 


No 


I II 


III 


IV 


I II III IV 


I II III IV 


Berks 




60 


123 20 






79 16 8 .. 


82 96 39 9 


Bucks 


.. 373 


1 


119 160 


36 


4 


182 106 4 4 


42 240 63 2 


Chester 


.. 29 


10 


57 6 






62 9 .. .. 


62 71 3 .. 


Clearfield 


.. 244 


15 


111 89 


11 


2 


139 18 5 .. 


41 164 13 3 


Delaware 


.. 25 


57 


12 6 


2 




15 3 1 .. 


12 10 .. .. 


Monroe 


. . 115 


9 


48 10 






29 22 .. .. 


36 46 .. .. 


Montgomery^". . .. 


.. 140 


294 












Northampton 


.. 71 


205 


36 4 






18 13 2 .. 


23 19 4 .. 


Northumberland . . 


.. 95 




47 19 


2 




30 8 .. .. 


29 52 7 3 


Perr>' 


.. 63 


1 


9 6 


1 


1 


31 3 .. .. 


10 36 1 .. 


Susquehanna 


9 




32 27 


3 




26 2 .. .. 


31 31 2 .. 


Westmoreland . . . . 


.. 252 


15 


116 95 


12 


3 


146 24 1 .. 


125 87 8 .. 




1436 


667 


710 442 


67 


10 


757 224 21 4 


493 852 140 17 


Districts 
















Abington 


.. 15 


31 


6 6 






7 4 .. .. 


7 7 .. .. 


Beaver 


7 


5 


7 






5 


2 3 .. .. 


Kane 


.. 20 


10 


14 5 






7 


10 7 1 .. 


Lock Haven 


.. 22 


10 


14 6 


2 




15 2 .. .. 


11 10 1 .. 




64 


56 


34 24 


2 




34 6 .. .. 


30 27 2 .. 


Total 


.. 1500 


723 


744 466 


69 


10 


791 230 21 4 


523 879 142 17 



counties are Bucks, and Westmoreland. Counties like Northamp- 
ton, Delaware, and Montgomery, with good transportation facilities 
and with populous centers and near large cities, were decidedly 
opposed to evening sessions. 

In the chapter on the finances of the county institutes the relation 
of the evening sessions to finances is discussed. It is there shown 
that the evening sessions are not self supporting. In the reports of 
the county superintendents for 1918 state report, nine counties do 
not report any expenditures for evening lectures and entertainments, 
while 28 counties do not report any proceeds from such entertain- 
ments, etc., a pretty clear indication that nineteen counties are 

1" Montgomery: Number who favored: 

SESSIONS 1 II III IV V 
3 42 51 24 15 



72 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

conducting these evening entertainments at a loss, which means 
that the pubHc is not responding. 

Fifty-five county superintendents have given their reasons for 
favoring or opposing evening sessions of the institute. Ten of the 
55 county superintendents who answered this question give reasons 
for opposing the holding of evening sessions. The main reasons 
given by these are: — The institute can't compete with the theatres; 
that they want their teachers to be fresh the next day; that many 
teachers go home; that instruction during the day is heavy; that 
evening sessions are not popular with the teachers in their own coun- 
ties. (This judgment does not agree with the result of the poll 
revealed in twelve counties where 63% of the teachers answering 
this question favored evening sessions.) The most weighty reason, 
however, given by the county superintendents against the holding of 
evening sessions is the diJB&culty of financing evening sessions where 
the public support is inadequate on account of other competitive 
attractions. 

"Did you Ever." 
"From A to Z." 
"Growth at Zero Hour." 
"The Middle of the Road." 
"Romantic California." 
"Winding the Clock." 
"Life's Levels." 
"The Comrade in White." 
"Following the Gleam." 
"A King in the Wilderness." 

Contrast these with subjects selected almost at random from 
recent sessions of the Pennsylvania State Educational Association 
and the lack of suggestively worth while contents will be apparent. 

A nalysis of Personnel 

Two years' programs were analyzed, fifty three for 1919 and the 
same number for 1920. The programs for 1919 were examined more 
in detail than those of the following year. The main purpose in 
analyzing the personnel of the programs for 1920 was to determine 
to what extent representatives of the State Department had in- 
creased and their possible affect on the institute program. 

A close analysis of the personnel shows that 50% of the instruc- 
tors are actively engaged in teaching or in school administrative 
work; 24% represent some phase of governmental activity or other 



COUNTY TEACHERS INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



73 



Table XV— Personnel— 1919 
(Total Number of Instructors — ^329) 

Number 



Per Cent 
Total 



Professional Lecturers 

College Teachers 

Normal School Teachers 

Normal School Principals 

Public Men 

Representatives Department Public Instruction. 

School Superintendents 

County Superintendents 

Elementary School Teachers 

High School Teachers 

Rural School Teachers 

Supervisors Special Subjects or Dept 

Authors 

Representative Red Cross 

Representatives Gov't. U. S 

Rrepresentatives Gov't. Pa 

Physicians (many Co. Health Officers) 

Music Directors 

Miscellaneous 



23 

74 

22 

31 

8 

24 

15 

10 

3 

1 



8 

4 

14 

1 

3 

37 

45 

6 

329 



7. 
22.5 

7. 

9.4 

2.4 

7. 

5. 

3. 

1. 
.3 

0. 

2 

1 

4 



1 
11 
13 

1 



100. 



organizations attempting to carry out their work thru the pubHc 
schools; the per centum of the so-called "professional" lecturer is 
only 7. This type of institute instructor is gradually disappearing, 
tho those included among the 23 are very well known. More than one- 
half of the Normal School teachers who were on the programs were 
principals of the schools and were on the programs of the counties 
of their own Normal School district. How much their appearance 
on the platform of the institute is due to their ex-officio status is 
merely problematical. It is rather remarkable that the men and 
women who are actually in the field are very rarely called on for 
instructional purposes in the institutes. Only 25 county and school 
superintendents from this or any other state, were engaged for 
institute work, or 8% of the total number, and these only for one 
or two addresses in the week. The same is equally true of rural and 
elementary teachers, both conspicuous for their absence on the insti- 
tute programs. 

While the so-called "professional" lecturer only comprised 7% 
of the total number of lecturers in the 53 counties studied, fifteen of 



74 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

these men filled 392 periods of time in 1919, or 32% of the total 
institute time. This is only counting those that filled a whole week's 
engagement, or an average of 8 to 10 addresses a week. There were 
numerous others of these lecturers who were present only two and 
three days in a county. Hence, it is safe to say that 40% of the 
total institute time in 53 counties was occupied by these 23 profes- 
sional lecturers. That this situation has an important bearing on the 
instruction of the Penna. institutes cannot be overlooked. To 
carry this analysis of personnel still further, there were 12 lecturers 
on the institute platform in Pennsylvania who lectured for an entire 
week in five or more counties in the state in the years studied, 1919 
and 1920. The range of the number of counties is as follows for each 
of these 12 lecturers, all but three being of the so-called "professional" 
type:— 5, 6, 12, 5, 10, 11, 9, 7, 6, 9, 6, 10. All but two of these lec- 
turers were from without the state. Only two or three of these 12 
lecturers ever discussed any of the subjects within the ten topics 
already mentioned as being indicative of modern tendencies, or move- 
ments that real live teachers should know something about. More 
remarkable, however, is the fact that these 12 lecturers covered a 
prodigious .amount of time. There were in the two years mentioned 
in these 53 counties whose programs were analyzed, 2746 periods of 
lecture work. The minimum number of periods covered by these 
12 lecturers, in addition to the periods occupied in sectional or de- 
partmental meetings, was 768, or 28% of the total. In other words, 12 
lecturers gave 28% of the instruction in two years in Pennsylvania 
institutes, some of whom used the same speeches in every county, and 
most of the speeches or lectures had been given for years either in 
Pennsylvania or other states. Furthermore, there were ten others 
who occupied in 28 counties in a full week's engagements, a minimum 
total of 224 periods. Thus it is very evident that 22 professional and 
semi-professional instructors at the Pennsylvania county institutes 
contribute 36% of the total instruction, in the years 1919 and 1920. 

The situation in the matter of musical directors at our county 
institutes is equally as striking. Of the 53 institutes studied, 51 
had regularly employed music "directors whose duty it is to mobilize 
and direct the singing forces, and to give instruction. Five men in 
the state contribute the direction of the music in 25 institutes as fol- 
lows in distribution of counties, one in each of: 9, 5, 4, 3, and 4 
counties. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 75 

In the 53 institutes of 1919 the Department of Public Instruction 
sent to the institutes a total of 24 representatives. This was 7% of 
the total number of instructors. In 1920 the number of Department 
representatives in 53 institutes had increased from 24 to 61. These 
61 representatives occupied 118 periods in the institutes or nearly 
8 per cent of the total time. Representatives went to 40 of the 53 
counties studied in 1920, while in 1919 they visited 20 counties of the 
53. The range of addresses delivered in 1920 was from 1 to 9. The 
number of representatives of the Department of Public Instruction 
in the institutes of 1921 was undoubtedly larger than in 1920. These 
data are not at present available in their completed form. In forty 
counties studied there were present 64 Department representatives; 
in 5 of these counties there were no Department representatives. 
The number of representatives from the State Department is of im- 
portance, not only to the shaping of an institute program, but is of 
concern to the finances. No doubt thousands of dollars are thus 
saved the county institutes, which in turn could be devoted to the 
securing of high class professional talent. 

Personnel Choices by Teachers 
In the general questionnaire presented to teachers was a question 
designed to throw light on the personnel of the institute instructors. 
Question No. 7 read as follows: 

Check in blank spaces three kmds of instructors preferred, using numeral 1 foi 
first choice, 2 for second, 3 for third : 

a. Public Men. d. Normal school teachers. 

b. Practical school men. e. Professional lecturers. 

c. College teachers. f . Successful local teachers. 

Forty-three of the 55 superintendents who answered this question 
are much in favor of evening sessions. These men realize the real 
educational value of the evening sessions not only for the teacher, 
but for the public as well. The most common of these reasons are: 
The opportunity given the teachers of hearing big men on big sub- 
jects; the diversion afforded teachers; social contacts and recreations; 
opportunity given rural teachers to hear inspirational addresses, 
artists and good music; the opportunity the community has of 
hearing discussions which stimulate and arouse interest in public 
education. One superintendent said that he favored the evening 
session in order to keep teachers out of the public dance halls, not a 
very commendable reason, but if true, evening sessions would be 
really worth-while. 



CHAPTER IV 

The Institute Program 

One of the most important phases of this study concerns the insti- 
tute program. Does the institute function efficiently thru its pro- 
gram? Does the program fill the needs and requirements of present 
day teachers? Is it in touch with the times? Are teachers being 
trained or improved thru it? To answer these natural questions the 
programs of the institutes of the state have been critically examined 
from three points of view: (1) the personnel of the instructors, 
(2) the materials of instruction as revealed thru the titles of the 
lectures, and other sources, (3) thru the assignment of materials for 
specific purposes. 

The analysis of the personnel of the institute programs is not so 
difficult since each institute program usually gives a brief description 
of the instructors, their positions, etc. Since the instruction given 
depends to a large extent upon the type of instructor, his position, his 
outlook on educational conditions, his immediate interests in the 
group instructed, his intimacy with teacher training problems, and 
many other factors, the personnel of the instructors in the institutes 
of Pennsylvania is an important matter. Accordingly, the instruc- 
tors of the institutes have been distributed among nineteen different 
classes as indicated by Table No. XV. 

The analysis of the contents or materials of the programs has not 
been a simple matter since it was not possible to read or to hear many 
of the addresses delivered > On the other hand, it should be within 
the province of safe diagnosis in the majority of cases where to place 
an educational address as prejudged by the title given At any rate, 
it is just as safe for one attempting to classify the addresses as it is 
for the county superintendent to select them from a list given by the 
instructor In other words, the officials entrusted with the making 
of the program for the institute must labor on the assumption that 
the titles of the addresses connotate specific educational contents. 
Therefore, it is felt that the margin of error is comparatively small. 
A very great assistance in classifying the subject matter is the 
acquaintance of the writer with many of the instructors who spoke 

76 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 77 

for the greater part of a week. With the exception of a large group 
of Normal School teachers, there were in all on the programs exam- 
ined forty instructors who were "five day" men. The writer has at 
one time or another heard 38 of these men, in many cases has heard 
the same addresses delivered at the institutes covered by the pro- 
grams studied. The programs studied represent 53 institutes held in 
the fall of 1919 and 1920. Of these the writer visited personally 15 
and has heard at various times at least one-third of the men repre- 
sented on these programs. 

The distribution or analysis of the contents of the addresses is 
according to the scheme as given in the table below (Table XXII). It 
will be noticed that the significant part of this particular study centers 
around those phases of modern educational movements with which it 
would be easily possible to identify any address. Reference is had 
particularly to these topics: — The curriculum, supervised study, the 
project method of teaching, supervision of instruction, measurements, 
silent reading, vocational guidance or education, nature study, citi- 
zenship, and community organization. The margin of error in plac- 
ing a subject of an educational address into any of these ten modern 
educational categories is comparatively small. The other three 
groups into which 50 per cent of all the addresses are placed — 
methods, inspirational materials, and professional — could hardly be 
mistaken with the ten mentioned. No one would place such titles 
as "The Man in the Moon," "The Baby and the Bath Water," "My 
Bag for Black Walnuts" and others equally as enigmatical into any 
category which would indicate that the subjects might refer to one 
of the ten modern subjects mentioned. Then, again, scores of ad- 
dresses were marked merely "addresses." These were placed after 
carefully considering the instructor and other named subjects that 
he had used. Usually, most of these subjects can be safely classified 
under the so-called "inspirational" type. Not much damage would 
be done to the classification if they were placed under either of the 
other two, methods or professional. By no stretch of the imagina- 
tion could such subjects be placed under any of the ten mentioned 
as being distinctly of modern tendency. 

On the other hand there can be no error in placing subjects like 
the following: "The Socialized Recitation," "Legal and Professional 
Obligations of the Teacher," "Agricultural Projects for Pennsylvania 
High Schools," "Sociology as Related to Rural Life," "Civics in Rural 
Schools." It is much more difficult, however, to place "The Door's 



78 



COUNTY TEACHERS INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



Worn Sill," "I Hate to Go Above You" or ''She Hath Done What She 
Couldn't." In the 53 programs analyzed for 1919, there were 26 
unnamed addresses found in 11 different counties; in the 1920 pro- 
grams analyzed, there were 81 unnamed addresses found in 30 coun- 
ties, tho there was one county where 75% of the addresses had no 
title, — a very unsatisfactory outlook for a group of teachers com- 
pelled to attend an institute, but not even knowing what to expect. 
In all, 4% of the 2736 addresses examined in 106 programs in two 
years, were without titles, or any indication as to the possible discus- 
sion. Many of the addresses in the sectional meetings were without 
titles — an indication of a lack of aim and plan in the sections. A 
few examples of poor and vague subjects are:^ 

"Oil for Creaking Joints." 

"A Big School Problem." 

"Odds and Ends." 

"World BuHding." 

"The New Woman." 

"The Framework Beneath the Frescoeing." 

"Killing Two Birds with One Stone." 

"The Man in the Moon." 

"The Ten Virgins." 

"Quo Vadis." 

"The Third Battle of the Mame." 

Table XVI — Personnel Choices by Teachers 





(2694 
First 
Choice 


Teachers) 
Second 
Choice 


Third 
Choice 


Weighted- 
Points 


Per 
Cent. 


Public Men 


341 
1576 
251 
116 
281 
129 


416 
468 
525 
479 
352 
241 


389 
281 
345 
369 
422 
490 


2244 
5945 
2148 
1675 
1969 
1359 


14.6 


Practical School Men 

CoUege Teachers 


38.7 
14.1 


Normal School Teachers. . . 

Professional Lecturers 

Successful Local Teachers. . 


10.8 

12.8 

8.9 




2694 


2481 


2296 


15340 


100. 



It is to be noted that Normal School teachers are ranked second 
by County Superintendents and only fifth by the teachers. This 
group occupies only 15 per cent of the instructional staffs of the 



* Selected from 1919 and 1920 County Institute Programs. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 79 

institutes studied. One-half of the sixteen per cent are Normal 
School principals. It is quite evident that in 1919 Normal School 
teachers occupied only 7 per cent of the instructional staff. The 
per cent would, undoubtedly, be larger in 1921, due to the rightful 
function that the institute and Normal Schools are beginning to hold 
towards each other. There is no reason why a higher degree of co- 
operation should not be shown towards these two agencies in their 
own territory. This lack of co-operation, however, seems to be more 
than peculiar to Pennsylvania alone. Lommen^ in discussing the 
instructional staff of teachers institutes says that, "Just one-half of 
the states make no effort to co-ordinate the interests of the teachers 
in the field with those of the nearest institution engaged in the special 
task of creating teaching ability. Herein lies a serious defect. 
No agency in the state should be so sensitive to the immediate 
needs of teachers in the service as should be the State Normal 
Schools." It is difficult, and, of course, immaterial, to say whether 
the Normal School or the County Superintendent is to blame for this 
condition. The fact is that the Normal Schools, as Bloomsburg has 
already done, should be the means of furnishing much real instruc- 
tional service to the institutes of its contingent territory. Their 
buildings, their teachers, their organizations should be put at the 
disposal of County Institutes wherever accessibility permits. 

Sixty-five County Superintendents also expressed their preference 
for the personnel of institute instructors by ranking them as follows: 



Professional Lecturers. . . 
Normal School Teachers . 

College Teachers 

Practical School Men . . . 
Public Men 



Weighted- 


Per 


Points 


Cent. 


161 


31.2 


120 


23.2 


112 


21.8 


81 


15.5 


42 


8.1 



It will be noticed that the ranking or choices of institute instruc- 
tors by 2500 teachers does not agree with that of the County Superin- 
tendents who place ''Professional" lecturers first, whereas teachers 
place them fourth. Teachers place "practical" school men first, 
while County Superintendents place them fourth. Teachers place 
public men and college teachers a close second, whereas County 
Superintendents place the college teachers third, and public men last. 

* Lommen, G., "journal of Rural Education," Oct. 1921. Op. Cit. p. 63. 



80 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



This comparison of personnel choices agrees pretty closely with the 
actual distribution of the personnel in the programs studied where 
it has been shown that 32 per cent of the institute time was filled 
by "professional" lecturers, who in turn were assigned a ranking of 
31.2 per cent by County Superintendents themselves — who, of 
course, also made out the programs. The table below illustrates 
the distributions of institute instructors on the programs according 
to the County Superintendents' ranking of choices and the actual 
distribution on programs, together with teachers' preferences: 

Table XVII — Comparative Table Prefeeences and Actual Distribution 



Type 


Pref. by 
Co. Supt. 


Per Ct. Actual 
Distribution 


Pref. by 
Teachers 


Professional 


31.2 
23.2 
21.8 
8.1 
15.5 


7.* 
16.4 
22.5 

2.4 
11.7 

7. 
33. 


12 8 


Normal School Teachers 


10 8 


College Teachers 


14.1 


Public Men 


14.6 


Practical School Men 


38.7 


Dept. Public Inst 




All Others 




*Occupied 32% of institute time. 





It is seen that there is a striking correlation between county 
superintendents' preferences of the type of instructors and the actual 
personnel as found in the programs when we translate the percentages 
of frequency of the five groups of instructors into the actual time 
occupied on the programs. There is no correlation, whatever, 
between teachers' preferences as to personnel of instructors, county 
superintendents, and the actual programs. This, of course, imme- 
diately raises the question whether or not teachers should have a 
share in the making up of the programs. It has been shown in the 
chapter on "Organizations" that teachers have little, if any, partici- 
pation in program making. 

Frequency and Number of Instructors 
The number of instructors varies from two in Cameron County 
to 16 in Chester County. The frequencies are as follows: 

Table XVIII — Frequency of Instructors — 1919 
Instructors 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 



No. of Counties 1 2 7 14 10 5 6 5 







COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



81 



It will be seen that 36 of the 53 institutes have from 4 to 7 instructors 
including the musical director and the health representative who 
usually gave but one address. The median number of instructors 
is 5.3 per institute, including, of course, the musical director who, 
with the exception of one or two addresses before one or two sections, 
does no teaching in most of the counties. 

Very few of the programs analyzed showed any evidence or plan of 
continuity. Occasionally some speaker would develop during the 
entire week one central theme. In a few instances some instructor 
gave two or three addresses bearing on one subject, but in no case 
did any 5 day instructor develop one line of thought. In fact, in the 
large majority of programs the addresses were isolated and more or 
less disconnected. Whether or not any continuity were possible or 
even desirable may be determined from the frequency of the number 
of lectures delivered and from the number of days that the instruc- 
tors were engaged. 

Table XIX — Frequency of Nxtmber of Lectttres — 1919 





1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


Number 


83 
8 


20 
4 


24 
7 


9 

3 


13 
6.2 


11 
6.2 


13 
8.7 


41 
30.1 


21 

18 


3 
3 


2 
2 


7. 


Per Cent 


7. 







Of the 1046 periods studied and placed it is evident that 593 or 56.7 
per cent were distributed among instructors who gave 8 or more 
addresses; 750 or 71 per cent among those who gave 6 or more ad- 
dresses. 

In connection with the matter of continuity of program the fre- 
quency of the number of days on which instructors appeared on the 
program is equally as significant. 

Table XX — Frequency of Days — 1919 

Days 





1 ■ 


2 


3 


4 


5 


Number Lecturers 


34 


22 


16 


4 


76 







Of the 132 instructors who could be classified as being on the 
program one or more days — musical directors and those who were 



82 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



present only half a day being excluded — 76 or 57.6 per cent were 
employed for 5 days or the entire week. This would indicate that 
continuity of program is possible if properly planned. 

An important bearing on the continuity of program is the number 
of lecture periods provided for the institutes studied. The number 
of lecture periods varies from 14 in one county to 67 in 1919, and 
from 16 in the lowest county to 92 in 1920. The median number of 
lecture periods in 1919 was 24, in 1920 it was 26. The average 
number in 1919 was 26, in 1920, 29. The table of frequency follows. 

Table XXI — Frequency Number or Lecture Periods — SO Counties 



Periods 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


20 


21 


22 






1919 


1 


2 


1 
1 


2 



3 
3 


3 

2 


1 
7 


3 
1 


3 


1920 


5 







Periods 


23 


24 


25 


26 


27 


28 


29 


30 


31 


32 






1919 


5 
3 


2 
1 


4 
3 


4 
2 


1 



4 
3 


1 

3 


1 

5 


1 
2 


1 


1920 


1 



Periods 


33 


34 


35 


36 


37 


38 


39 


40 


43 


45 


55 


67 


75 


9? 






1919 



1 


1 

2 


2 







1 
1 





1 


1 


1 
2 


1 


1 


1 


1 




1920 


1 







Effect of Sections on Type of Program 

It is rather difficult to determine what the effect of the sectional 
institute properly organized might have on the institute program. 
It is logical to believe that the mere division of an institute into 
sections will necessitate instructional materials adapted to the 
needs of those constituting a particular group. This theory does not 
always work judging from an analysis of 49 programs. (Complete 
programs were lacking in 4 counties. As has been stated, a large 
majority of the addresses without titles are found in the sectional 
programs. Many of these sections are merely scheduled as "con- 
ferences" or "questions" without any assigned theme. In many 
cases there is not even an assigned chairman or a definite division of 
time. (See chapter on "Organization of Institute.") 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 83 

In 1919 the Department strongly urged in a "Bulletin on Insti- 
tutes" that sectional institutes be organized wherever possible. As 
a result in 1920, 29 of the 53 county institutes studied were sectional 
and 24 general. To note the effect of such divisions on the program 
it is interesting to note that in 1919 only 20 programs had any 
provision, whatever, for a discussion of topics related to rural schools. 
This number increased in 1920 to 33. Of the general program insti- 
tutes, 15 out of 24 did not even touch the rural school problem, 
while only 5 out of 29 of the sectional program institute failed to 
stress this problem. The same is undoubtedly true of other phases. 
The one great handicap noticed thus far in organizing the program 
of the sectional institutes seems to be the small amount of time 
allocated to the sections proper. In many cases, the sections are 
provided for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, only, because 
of the convening of the institutes Monday afternoon and the ad- 
journment Friday noon. The time assigned is generally from 11 to 
12 o'clock, and in some cases from 10 to 12. This would indicate that 
at present the form of the sectional institute, and not the spirit is 
being followed. 

A nalysis of Subject Matter 

Forty-nine available programs for 1919 were analyzed in detail. 
The same number of programs for 1920 were analyzed primarily to 
determine to what extent there had been an increase in the instruc- 
tional materials in fields which may be characterized as modern, 
such as the junior high school, the use of intelligence and achieve- 
ment tests, supervised study in various subjects, the project method 
of teaching, and others equally as prominent before the schools. 

On account of the introduction in many institutes of the sectional 
meetings, the programs have increased in size and scope. This 
may be seen from the increase in the number of instructional periods 
from 1217 in 1919 to 1529 in 1920. In the following table is given the 
distribution of content matter according to the scheme already 
mentioned. 

This analysis has excluded all the time assigned to music during 
the day sessions. Music instruction in some institutes covers as 
much as one-fourth of the institute's time; neither does the analysis 
cover the evening programs which are at least 75 per cent enter- 
tainment. 



84 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



Table XXII — Distribution of Sxibject Matter — 1919 — County Institutes 

(1217 Periods) 



No. Periods 


Per Cent of Total 


220 


18.2 


320 


26.4 


101 


8.3 


52 


4.3 


43 


3.5 


73 


6.0 


38 


3.1 


31 


2.5 


37 


3.0 


27 


2.2 


8 


0.6 


3 


0.2 


18 


1.5 


3 


0.2 


17 


1.5 


18 


1.5 


17 


1.5 


38 


3.0 


13 


1.0 


11 


0.9 


37 


3.0 


13 


1.0 


15 


1.2 


25 


2.0 


25 


2.0 


5 


0.4 



Methods of Instruction 

Inspiration 

Professional 

Psychology 

Curriculum 

Health 

Information 

Entertainment 

War or Aftermath 

Supervised Study 

Project Method (Two Counties) , 

Supervision of Instruction 

Measurements 

SUent Reading 

Vocational Education 

Organization 

Discipline 

Rural Education 

Red Cross 

Thrift 

Citizenship 

Demonstration 

Nature Study 

Miscellaneous 

Community 

Moral Education 



An effort has been made in this analysis to separate as much as 
possible all provisions in the institute programs made for the follow- 
ing movements: supervised study, project method of teaching, 
supervision of instruction, measurements, silent reading, vocational 
education, rural education, citizenship, community, junior high 
school. This exclusive classification serves the double purpose of 
avoiding error of classification and of revealing whether or not any 
stress has been placed on admittedly important modern school 
movements. To these ten phases the fifty-three institute programs 
analyzed gave 14.2 per cent of their program space. In all these 
programs no mention seems to be made of the junior high school, 
nothing about the project method, while the problem of Americani- 
zation goes by default entirely. One would expect that one year after 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



85 



the World War (1919) problems of an educational character arising 
out of the War would find a place on the institute program. As a 
matter of fact, the War or its aftermath cocupied three (3) per cent 
of the day programs. The rural school problem about which county 
superintendents are always dispairing of solving and which one 
would think would be the paramount concern of our county chiefs, 
does not even find a place on 33 of the 53 programs examined. 
This problem consumed but three (3) per cent of the program space. 
Health came in for stress in nearly every one of the counties because 
the Department of Health made an effort to present the health prob- 
lem to the teachers. The lecture, "The Teacher as a Life Saver" 
was given in most of the counties of the state by a representative of the 
Department of Health. 

An analysis of 53 county programs for 1920 has been made with 
the view of determining to what extent the institutes last year 
stressed the more recent phases of educational movements such as 
those indicated. The following table gives this analysis. 

Table XXIII — Distribution of Subject Matter Covering Certain Movements 

1920 (1529 periods) 



No. Periods 



Per Cent of Total 





1919 


1920 


1919 


1920 


Junior High School 




8 
21 


37 
38 


24 
17 




3 
21 
41 
11 
68 
71 
12 
56 
14 




0.0 
.6 
1.7 
0. 
3. 
3. 
0. 
2. 
1.5 
0. 


.2 


Project Method 


1.3 


Measurements (Inc. Sil. Rdg.) 


2.6 


Socialized Recitation 


.7 


Citizenship 


4.4 


Rural Education 


4.6 


Americanization 


.8 


Red Cross — Thrift 


3.7 


Vocational Education 


.9 


Supervision of Instruction 


0. 






Total 


145 


287 


11. 


18. 







It will be seen that there has been an appreciable increase from 
11 per cent to 18 per cent of the total number of periods allotted 
to these more recent movements. There is no doubt that the people 
and teachers are thinking more about rural education and citizenship 
since the activity of the Department of Public Instruction in stressing 



86 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

these two thru the Bureau of Rural Schools and thru the newly 
organized curriculum in the social studies. 

It is evident from the analysis already made that the county 
institute program in 1919 did not function with the modern demands 
and tendencies. It is very clear that the institute does not effectively 
stress the needs of the rural schools, nor does it offer teachers the 
opportunity to be expected of making them familiar with worth 
while modern movements. A further analysis from different points 
of view reveals similar shortcomings in these programs. The third 
analysis classifies all instruction into general and specific, two terms 
of which there can be little dispute as to their meaning. All lectures 
that touched upon general educational problems without reference 
to any particular application, have been classified under General In- 
struction; all those which appeared to have, or suggested even 
remotely, any specific application were placed under Specific Instruc- 
tion. In addition, whatever instructional materials as announced 
by the 49 programs and analyzed, could be assigned to the grades, 
the high school, or rural schools, were so placed. All materials that 
seemed to concern teachers without experience, or designed primarily 
for such, were likewise classified. In all 1209 lecture subjects were an- 
alyzed in this way. The following table shows the results : 

Table XXIV — Distribution of Subject Matter- 

(1919) 



General Instruction 

Specific Instruction 

Assigned to grades , 

Assigned to high schools , 

Assigned to rural schools 

Pertaining to beginning teacher . 



rTER — 49 Counties 


No. Periods PerCt. of Total 


666 


57 


523 


43 


194 


16 


61 


5 


38 


3 


2 






Twenty-five counties, or 50 per cent of the counties studied, had 
less than 10 periods of specific instruction; two counties had only 2; 
one had 3; four had 4 each; four had 5 each, while six had 6 each. 
There were 14 counties in all that offered more specific instruction 
then general instruction. Two counties, Chester and Montgomery, 
perhaps the most highly sectionalized institutes in the state, each 
had a predominatingly large percentage of specific instruction. 
Chester county offered 47 periods of specific instruction, against 
14 periods of general, with a few periods not assigned because of 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 87 

uncertainty. Montgomery offered 37 periods of specific instruction 
against 10 of general instruction. 

It is very evident that according to this classification and analysis, 
the county institutes in Pennsylvania in 1919 offered very little 
that could be appropriated either by the grade or high school teacher. 
The ordinary program is lamentably deficient in instruction for 
high school teachers — a very plausible explanation for the universal 
apathy of high school teachers towards the institute. It has already 
been pointed out that the rural schools, which should be especially 
well taken care of in the county institute programs, receive less than 
five per cent of the institute program space. Beginners have received 
nothing specific, while principals and other administrative officers 
are as scantily treated as beginners, even tho few counties do carry 
on their programs "conferences for principals" and "meetings of 
inexperienced teachers." This situation is the more intensified when 
we note that in eight out of the forty-nine counties not a single 
period could be specifically assigned to the elementary grades; 
while in 28 of the forty-nine counties not a single subject suggested 
application to the rural school problem, either generally or specifically. 
Undoubtedly, it is ture that a good deal of the instruction offered at 
the institutes can be appropriated by all groups of teachers. The 
material classified as "inspirational" is of this type. Does this 
type of material, however, offer the type of instruction that will im- 
prove teachers in service? 



CHAPTER V 

The County Institute as an Agency in the Improvement of 
Teachers in Service 

As already intimated, the county institute to justify itself should 
be an agency to improve teachers in service at the present time. 
We have already seen in Chapter I, "Historical Origins," that the 
original function of the institute was at least, two fold-propaganda 
for better school sentiment, and teacher preparation. The two 
purposes were knit together thru the developing leadership of the 
County Superintendent. This purpose is well seen even to-day as is 
evidenced in a paper on "Some Values of County Institutes"^ by 
Thomas A, Bock, then county superintendent of Chester. In this 
paper read before the County Superintendents' section of the Penn- 
sylvania State Educational Association, Harrisburg, 1920, Supt. 
Bock said: 

And one element wherebj^ the countj'' superintendent exercises his leadership is the 
county institute; moreover a very significant factor in the maintenance of his county 
educational leadership lies in his conduct and development of his county institute. 

This ideal of the superintendent's leadership is the logical outcome 
of the evolution of our system of school administration in Pennsyl- 
vania, whereby the county superintendent occupies a pivotal admin- 
istrative position. The necessity, however, for keeping up this 
leadership should not be any considerable motive or only reason for 
continuing any institution, if this institution has performed its 
function in the natural course of our educational evolution. Hence, 
the need to evaluate carefully any thesis that the county institute is 
still an agency that improves teachers in service. That this is a func- 
tion claimed for the county institute can be readily seen by quoting 
briefly from some Institute Manuals and recent authorities : 

The main purpose of all institute work is to develop teaching and training 
power. ^ 

^ Paper read before County Superintendents Dept. P.S.E.A., 1920 — Bock, T. A., 
Co. Supt. of Chester. 

^ Kentucky Manual on Institutes, 1910. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 89 

"The primary purpose of a teachers' institute is to secure better teaching."' 
"Stated in one phrase, the function of the institute is to increase immediately 

and directly the efficiency of our schools. Both the teachers and the public have a 

right to expect discoverable results. And this in spite of the fact that it may be 

admitted that many results are not directly measurable."* 

"The true test of the value of the institute is whether the teachers teach differently 

by the help received."^ 

County Superintendent Milnor of Lycoming County, Pennsyl- 
vania claims as the first valuable service of the Institute the follow- 
ing: 

It furnishes professional instructions for teachers and inspiration for their work, 
by contact with trained instructors and personal association with each other. This 
leads to (a) self-improvement, professional reading and study; (b) school improvement 
in methods, management and discipline; and (c) closer co-operation among patrons, 
teachers and directors.* 

No less an authority on public education than Dr. Snedden says that, 
The institutes are for the after-training of teachers.'' 

The chapters on "Historical Origins" and ''The Aims of Institutes" 
would also indicate that one of the functions of the institutes has 
been and is the improvement of teachers in service. 

Dr. Ruediger, however, while agreeing that teachers' institutes 
in the past were agencies for improving teachers, takes issue in the 
whole movement for the improvement of teachers in service by 
drawing a distinction among the "training of teachers," "the trial 
period of teaching," and the "professional life of a full-fledged 
teacher."* Ruediger would limit the "after-training" of teachers 
to the "trial group," tho not denying that "the obligation of pro- 
fessional growth is one of the basic obligations of the teacher's life." 
Ruediger in no uncertain language condemns the practice of insisting 
upon the after-professional-training of teachers who have reached 
their "professional majority." 

To put it in still plainer English, my main point is that there should be a time 
when a teacher reaches his professional majority, after which his professional growth 

3 Illinois Commission, 1908-10. 

* Betts, "The County Institute," Schoolmen's Week, 1919, p. 208-11. 
^Betts, op. cit., p. 211. 

* Milnor, G. B. Schoolmen's Week Proceedings, 1919, p. 226. 
' From answer to inquiry of Mar. 1, 1922. (q. v. appendix.) 

* Bulletin No. 3, 1922, U. S. Bureau of Education, op. cit. 



90 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

should be motivated by his own professional needs and he should no longer be pestered 
by time-consuming and distasteful general requirements.' 

For the teacher who is teaching in the "trial period," Ruediger 
would prescribe summer session work or extension courses until she 
attains to the "professional majority" group. Ruediger, therefore, 
does not advocate the institute as an agency for training teachers in 
service, for he thinks that the annual county institute contributes 
"very little"^" to the professional training of teachers. In spite of 
this authority's dissension from the claimed aim of the institute that 
it serves as a means to train teachers in service, we can consider 
the claim with the view of determining the soundness of the proposi- 
tion. 

This study cannot discuss even in a general way teacher training 
agencies or facilities in Pennsylvania To advance the proposition, 
however, that institutes should be a means for the after-training or 
improvement of teachers in service, it can be assumed that there are 
many agencies to improve teachers in service, but only a few to train 
them for service. We are limited in Pennsylvania to our thirteen 
State Normal Schools and to our colleges thru their departments of 
training teachers for service. To these we should add the Summer 
Schools, tho these usually take the teachers already in service. 
The agencies for training teachers in service are numerous, but among 
the most effective are supervision, inspection, and standardization; 
attendance at summer schools; correspondence courses with state 
and private institutions; extension courses; college courses in resi- 
dence during school year; visitation days; demonstration classes 
either in the local system or in other schools; attendance at state 
conventions, the sabbatical year, etc.; and thru local and county 
institutes.^^' ^^ Undoubtedly other means for improving teachers in 
service can be named. The number of agencies is, indeed, preten- 
tious. It is safe to say that if all these agencies existed in 1857, 
county institutes would never have originated and continued as they 
have. This fact must be borne in mind. 

Neither can it be denied that there is need for training teachers 
in service. The thousands of teachers who attend summer sessions 

' Ruediger, "Schoolmen's Week Proceedings," 1917, p. 64, and School and 
Society— Jan. 27, 1918. 

^° From answer to inquiry of March 1, 1922. 

" Updegraff, H., Training Teachers in Service, N. E. A. Proceedings, 1911. 

^^ Ruediger, Improvement Teachers in Service, Bulletin U. S. Bureau, No. 3, 1911. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 91 

and who take extension and resident courses during the school year 
are an evidence of this fact, not to mention the lack of a sufficient 
number of adequately trained teachers, and the large number of 
young and inexperienced teachers. Besides, 

there is still another phase of the situation which makes it necessary to provide training 
for teachers during their period of service. The science and art of teaching are growing 
by leaps and bounds. Social conditions which the teacher must meet are also in 
constant change. If a teacher, Rip Van Winkle like, goes to sleep with the preparation 
that even the best training course can give 1 o-day, to-morrow he will be out of date." 

A further justification for the training of teachers in service may be 
seen from the fact that: 

The principles and practices, theory and the art of education, are constantly 
undergoing, in common with the other phases of civilization, modification and develop- 
ment. Likewise, the field of knowledge in which instruction is given and the habits 
which education seeks to form, are always changing.^* 

With all these agencies at hand, the relative value of the institute 
can be questioned, and seriously so, at present. No matter how 
well this institution might have done its work 25 years ago, that in 
itself cannot justify it. The institute must stand on its merit as an 
agency to improve teachers in service as compared with the others 
mentioned. We are attempting to study the institute according to 
efficiency principles. The institute is an enterprise; it costs money; 
it does or does not turn out a product. Does the product, or the 
result cost too much? Can the same result be secured for less ex- 
pense? Is the aim of the present institute sufficient to meet a situa- 
tion or need for the improvement of teachers? Is the personnel of the 
institute an efficient one? Is its organization satisfactory to carry 
out its aims? Most of these questions have already been answered 
in the chapters on "Finance," "Organization," and "Programs." 
It remains, however, to discuss specifically the institute as a teacher 
training device in the light of our present needs. 

The training of teachers in 1857 when institutes had their legal 
origin was a comparatively simple matter. The institute then, thru 
its program and organization, performed a distinct service not only 
in giving teachers some training in subject matter and professional 
outlook, but assisted in developing a proper public attitude towards 
education, and the public schools in particular. Gradually, education 

•'Manuel, "School and Society," Dec. 31, 1921, p. 633. 
" Updegraff, H., N. E. A. Proceedings, 1911, pp 433-41. 



92 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

has been reduced to a science and teaching raised to a profession in 
which its members have been slowly but surely required to show real 
professional training. The teacher of fifty years ago, indeed a 
good deal less than that, finds that his or her simple knowledge of 
the three R's cannot cope with present day requirements for certifi- 
cation when at least a high school education and a two year Normal 
School course are essential. Teaching has become a job, requiring 
a specialized training which the teacher training school alone can 
give. Basic professional training of teachers, is, therefore, incon- 
ceivable in any five (5) day or series of five (5) day institutes, no 
matter how highly organized and programmed. 

The analysis of the county institute program in the preceding 
chapter gave an indication of how sadly lacking is the ordinary 
program in those subjects which to-day loom large in the profes- 
sionally specialized educational courses in our colleges and Normal 
Schools. No one will deny that inspirational and professional zeal 
are necessary, not only in teaching, but in every other learned 
profession. It must be admitted that education has no monopoly of 
those dynamic spiritual forces, and it is almost a derogatory aim to 
say that inspiration should furnish one-half of the instruction in the 
institute program. It is merely sufficient to add that inspiration 
and general instruction will not, alone, earn certification. It is 
concrete, specific training for the real job of teaching that will 
count, just as such training will count in law and medicine. The 
institute, to function, should, therefore, help teachers to meet 
specific problems in their work, and in the daily development of new 
conceptions in education. Ruediger has well pointed this out 
in discussing the in-service "professional side" of the teacher: 

On the professional side we should in general place such matters as (1) the instruc- 
tion of new methods and devices, e. g., the introduction of standard scales and tests; 
(2) changes in the curriculum, e. g., the introduction of nature study; community civics, 
or school banks; (3) significant modifications in rules and in administration, e. g., 
the lengthening of the school day or the adoption of the six-six plan; and (4) the con- 
certed study of those contributions to educational literature that are of group interest, 
e. g., t3^ical school surveys. . }^ 

The institute does not do this. The institute should help the inex- 
perienced teachers. It does not do so. The institute should focus 
attention on the rural school. It fails to perform this function, even 
tho a large proportion of the teachers are attending county institutes, 

" Ruediger, Schoolmen's Week Proceedings, 1917, p. 63. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 93 

are rural teachers. If teachers were being trained in service, their 
technique of teaching, their understanding of modern methods, 
devices, and changing conceptions of education, would be improved. 
The institute cannot be credited with any such deliberate intentions, 
judged by the instruction given.^^ 

What do competent authorities or those capable of judging say? 
We may be justified in saying that those who are in immediate and 
direct supervision of teachers should know. Two hundred district 
superintendents and supervising principals from all sections of 
the state answered this question: 

To what degree does the Institute actually function as an agency to improve 
teachers in service? 

These were the replies: 
Much 68 

Little 124 

None 7 

County and district superintendents themselves have expressed 
themselves on this same query. Of the 66 county superintendents in 
the state, 1 said teachers showed no improvement after the Institute; 
5 little; 28 medium; 24 much; 6 did not answer. 

District superintendents who hold separate institutes said: 
0, none; 4, little; 15, medium; 9, much; 14 did not answer. 

Superintendents and supervising principals who unite with the 
county institute said: 

4, none; little, 15; medium, 15; much, 5; doubt, 1. 

The combined judgment of county, district, superintendent and 
supervising principals — 128 in all was as follows: 

None, 5; little, 24; medium, 58; much, 40. 

It should be borne in mind that practically all these supervisory 
officers not only attend the institutes, but have an unusual oppor- 
tunity to observe whether or not the instruction given at the institutes 
functions. Only one-third of these officials claimed that the teachers 
they observed had improved "much"; 25 per cent believed they had 
improved "little" or "none," while 45 per cent thought that the 
improvement shown was "medium." 

What is the relative value of the institute in the improvement of 
teachers in service as compared with other agencies? This is a difficult 
question to answer statistically. However, it would seem without 

'* Chapter on "Programs," q. v. 



94 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

need of proof that the summer school with its six weeks of continuous 
courses, or the intra year college or extension courses would be in- 
finitely more efficient. As has been shown, the institute offers no 
continuous program; its instruction is more or less promiscuous, of the 
hit or miss kind; and tho it may offer teachers some acquaintance 
with certain tendencies, it now gives very little, if any real training 
for service, or incentive for prosecuting organized professional study. 

Any effective program of teacher improvement must offer some 
opportunities for continuous growth thru attendance at some insti- 
tution or thru organized courses of professional reading, supplemented 
with definite checking systems for determining achievement or 
accomplishment of assigned or required courses. All the agencies 
mentioned for improving teaching will do this except those agencies 
which are of the "convention type," in which class the institute as at 
present generally organized and conducted will fall. One serious 
fault of the institute is its failure to do this very thing. There is 
no relationship between the program of one year with that of another; 
there is no standard set for the continued professional growth of 
teachers after the closing of the institute. There is very little 
preparation for this institute. This is very well shown by the 
fact that in only eight counties in 53 were there committees or 
organizations of any kind whatever to take charge of the profes- 
sional reading or literature activities ; whereas in only seven counties 
were there committees to organize educational meetings as a follow- 
up of the county institutes. True, in nearly every county a list 
of professional books was given, but there is no way to know to 
what extent county superintendents check up their suggestions 
for professional reading. 

Apropos of determining the relative value of the institute as a 
teacher improvement agency, the county superintendents of Penn- 
sylvania were asked this question: "If it were legally, financially, 
and otherwise possible, would you substitute summer session work 
for teachers in Normal School or College for the institute?" The 
answers by county superintendents were as follows: 

Yes, 17; no, 30; doubtful, 5; no answers, 11. 
The answers by district sperintendents were as follows: 

Yes, 59; no, 21; doubtful, 1; no answers, 13. 
The combined judgment of 133 superintendents who answered the 
question is as follows: 

Yes, 76; no, 51; doubtful, 6. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 95 

The following question, worded differently, but of the same 
purport, was put to the principals and supervising principals in the 
state, of whom 200, from nearly every county, answered: If it 
were in every way possible and within your power, would you employ 
or prefer to employ the money now being spent by your district to pay 
for teachers^ attendance at the Institute for other school purposes instead 
of attendance at Institutes? The answers were: Yes, 138; no, 58. 
This is a clear indication that there must be other purposes to 
which the institute money can be put in order to secure the improve- 
ment of teachers in service. 

The question was followed up by another in which supervising 
principals should indicate two ways in which the equivalent sum 
would be spent, giving first and second choice. These choices 
are valuable in that they express the judgment of administrative 
ofl&cials who have to deal daily with the teacher problem so far as its 
improvement is concerned. These choices follow: 

Table XXVI — Improvement Agencies 

Methods of Improving Service No. First Choice No. Second Choice 

a. Closer supervision 27 6 

b. Additional teacher or teachers for regular 

or special subjecJs 16 16 

c. Better library facilities 4 15 

d. Sending deserving teachers to summer school 

by paying all or part expenses 27 19 

e. Better salaries for some or all teachers.. . . 18 21 

f. Paying expenses to selected teachers for ob- 

serving work in other schools 12 31 

g. Securing experienced and successful educators 

to address teachers on specific problems 32 32 

It is evident from these choices that those supervising principals 
who prefer to expend the equivalent institute attendance money 
would spend it on (1) Securing experienced educators to address their 
own teachers on specific problems, and (2) Sending deserving teachers 
to summer schools. 

The supervising principals were also requested to name the three 
agencies which they thought would improve teachers in service most. 
The summary of first, second, and third choices are given in Table 
XXVII. 

It will be seen that supervisory ofiicials' judgment is pronouncedly 
in favor of agencies other than the institute to improve teachers in 



96 



COUNTY TEACHERS INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



Table XXVII — Improvement Agencies 



Agencies 



Summer School for 4 or 6 weeks 

Professional Reading 

Closer supervision 

Correspondence courses 

Teachers' Associations or Conventions . . . 

Demonstration classes either in own 
schools or elsewhere 

Helping teachers for rural schools 

County or City Institutes 

Visiting other schools 

Local Institutes 

Two or three day educational meetings 
stress big movements in education and 
make for prof essional spirit 



First 



116 
39 
10 

5 
3 

11 
1 
3 
9 




Second 



26 

42 

6 

6 

12 

42 
2 
3 

46 

4 



15 



Third 



15 

15 

20 

9 

5 

23 

1 

11 

23 

4 



Weighted 
Points 



415 

216 

62 

36 

38 

140 
8 

26 
142 

12 



99 



service. Even one-third of the county superintendents would prefer 
the summer school (1919); seventy-three per cent of the district 
superintendents, and seventy (70) per cent of the supervising princi- 
pals would prefer to spend the equivalent sum of money in other 
ways. It is interesting to note that supervising principals would 
prefer to spend the equivalent institute fund in the following order: 
(1) securing experienced and successful educatiors to address teachers 
on specific problems; (2) Sending deserving teachers to summer 
school by paying all or part of expenses; (3) closer supervision; (4) 
better salaries for some or all teachers, and (5) additional teacher or 
teachers for regular or special subjects. It is very pertinent to the 
inquiry to call attention to the first preference, viz. discussions by 
authorities of specific problems. 

Teachers^ Preferences of Improvement Agencies 

Following the plan of the inquiry, groups of teachers were asked 
to give their preferences, if a choice were possible, as to whether 
they preferred (a) institutes as at present organized, (b) two or three 
days educational meetings, (c) well organized system of local insti- 
tutes, or (d) summer sessions. In all 1376 teachers in six counties, 
four urban districts, and a group in a summer session (State College, 
1921) answered this question. (Appendix, q.v. No. 10.) Table 
XXVIII gives the summary of these replies. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



97 



Table XXVIII — Type Teacher Training Agencies Preferred by Teachers 



Type 


First 


Second 


Third 


Weighted 
-Points 


Per 
Cent. 


a. Institute 


890 

176 

68 

242 


179 

364 
288 
306 


83 
297 
340 
251 


3091 
1553 
1120 
1589 


42. 


g. Two or Three Day Educational Meetings 
c. Local Institutes 


21.2 
15.2 


d. Summer Sessions 


21.6 







On the surface it appears that an overwhelming number of these 
1376 teachers prefer the institute as at present organized and con- 
ducted (890 or 64 per cent of first choices). This, however, is far 
from the real situation, when we consider the first, second, and 
third choices. This shows that 58 per cent do not prefer the institute. 
Even when the first choices are only considered, we still find that 

36 per cent do not prefer the institute. This is a very substantial 
number. When the weighted points are taken into consideration 
we find that summer sessions have a preference of 21.6 per cent. 
It would be interesting to know teachers' reactions at present after 
12,000 teachers of the state attended summer schools in the summer 
of 1921, and 29,000 attended in the summer of 1922. As has been 
pointed out, 64 teachers out of 134, who answered this inquiry at 
State College in the summer of 1921, preferred the summer session, 

37 the institute, and 21 two or three day educational meetings. 
These choices are a decided contrast to the preferences expressed 
before the movement for higher certification began. 

Foiir Urban Groups 

Let us consider the preferences of the four urban districts, the 
summer session group, and the rural and town groups of two typical 
counties, Clearfield and Northumberland. We find in the four urban 
districts that 58 out of 132 teachers prefer summer sessions, 31 two or 
three day educational meetings, and 29 institutes. Out of 134 teachers 
at State College Summer School, 64 preferred summer sessions, 37 
institutes, and 21 two or three day educational meetings. In other 
words, in these two groups, 253 being town or urban teachers, only 66 
favored institutes, 122 summer sessions, 52 two or three day educa- 
tional meetings in each county. It, therefore, appears that in a small 
sampling of town teachers, representing nearly every county in the 
state, about 25 per cent, favor institutes, 46 per cent, favor summer 



98 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

sessions, and 20 per cent, two or three day educational meetings. 
The remaining 1 1 per cent, either favored local institutes, or did not 
answer. 

Rural and Town Groups 

It is urged that county institutes are necessary because of the 
large groups of rural teachers who are away from educational facili- 
ties and who need the institute to put them in touch with new 
thought, new methods, and new contacts and outlooks. The rural 
teacher population needs to be analyzed before such a conclusion 
can be claimed. We need especially to know the attitude of rural 
teachers towards increased professional preparation which mani- 
festly cannot be secured in the county institute. An analysis of the 
rural and town teacher population in Clearfield and Northumberland 
Counties reveals the following suggestive facts: 

(a) Rural Group-182 

Number of rural teachers in the two counties answering: 

Clearfield 136 

Northumberland 46 182 

Number of rural teachers in two counties with Normal School and Permanent 
Certificates: 

Clearfield 22 

Northumberland 7 29 

Number with Normal School and Permanent Certificates preferring Institute 23 

Number with Normal School and Permanent Certificates preferring Summer 

Session 6 

Number with Professional and Provisional Certificates 153 

Number with Professional and Provisional Certificates favoring Institute 97 

Number with Professional and Provisional Certificates favoring Summer Sessions 38 

(b) Town Group — 171 

Number of Town teachers with Normal and Permanent Certificates: 

Clearfield 80 

Northumberland 32 112 

Number of Town teachers with professional and provisional Certificates: 

Clearfield 41 

Northumberland 18 59 

Number Town teachers with Normal and Permanent Certificates favoring Inst. 78 
Number Town teachers with Professional and Provisional Certificates favoring 

Institute 36 

Number Town teachers with Normal and Permanent Certificates favoring Summer 

Sessions 16 

Number Town teachers with Professional and Provisional Certificates favoring 

Summer Sessions 20 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 99 

It is plain that of the 153 rural teachers who have only a pro- 
fessional or provisional certificates, 97 or 63 per cent prefer institutes, 
39 or 25 per cent summer sessions. Of the rural group of 29 who 
have regular Normal or Permanent certificates, 23 or 80 per cent 
prefer institutes; while six or 20 per cent prefer summer sessions. 

Of the town teachers 112 out of 171 have Normal or Permanent 
certificates. Of these 112, 78 or 69 per cent prefer institutes, and 
16 or 14 per cent prefer summer sessions. 59 out of 171 town teachers 
have Professor or Provisional certificates. Of this group 36 or 61 
per cent prefer the institute, 20 or 34 per cent summer sessions. 
The significant facts in this analysis of preferences in town and rural 
groups in two typical counties of the state, representing 353 teachers, 
nearly equally divided in number are: 

1. Sixty-five and one half per cent (65.5) per cent of town teachers held a form 
of permanent certificates, while only 16 per cent of the rural group held permanent 
certificates, i. e., Normal School Diplomas or a form of State Permanent. 

2. Of teachers holding a form of Permanent Certificate, 71.6 per cent preferred 
county institutes to summer sessions. 

3. Of teachers holding a form of temporary certificate, mainly provisional, 62 per 
cent prefer county institutes, 27 per cent summer sessions, 11 per cent, two day 
educational meetings, local institutes, or not answering. 

It thus appears that those who need the summer session work in 
order to ' secure a higher form of certificate, preferred the county 
institute to summer sessions for teacher improvement, in the ratio 
of 62 to 27. Teachers who do not need the summer session for 
certification purposes (1919), had a strong preference for the county 
institute. It is logical to expect that teachers who have secured a 
form of permanent certificate would so prefer, but it is rather strange 
that teachers who do not have permanent certification should prefer 
the institute to summer session. However, an analysis of the attend- 
ance at our summer sessions before last year (1921) would undoubt- 
edly reveal the fact that those attending summer sessions are in the 
main town teachers with permanent certificates. 

The striking situation that we are concerned with at this point is 
not that teachers with some form of permanent certificate — State 
Normal Certificate, Diploma, or State Permanent — have a strong 
preference for Institutes, but that teachers with minimum profes- 
sional accomplishments, should express such a preference. This fact 
at once suggests whether or not Seerley was right when in 1908 
he made this assertion: 



100 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

... it (the institute) has also had the counter effect of making teachers satisfied 
with minimum educational qualifications, and with empirical training, so that the 
majority of them have long since concluded that when they have enough scholarship 
to secure a brief license to teach, and have added to this annual attendance at the 
teachers' institute, they have shown sufficient professional evidence of their individual 
capacity as educators.*^ 

In other words, it would appear as though the Institute actually up 
to 1919 connived at minimum certification. It would appear that 
teachers who held low type certificates did not have a great degree 
of persistence to secure a higher type. 

This tendency is strangely corroborated by a recent study on 
"The Status of the Rural Teacher.''^^ 

It is evident that only 38 per cent of the number of teachers reporting had had 
supplementary training during service. 

This refers to the one room rural teacher who held a type of temporary 
certificate — provisional, professional, and also permanent. It is a 
coincident that in this independent study in another field, it should 
develop that in these two typical counties, only 38 per cent preferred 
other types of teacher improvement agencies. King further analyzes 
the agencies employed by the 38 per cent as follows: 

8 per cent in summer academies, 10 per cent in summer local or county normal 
schools, 12 per cent in summer State Normal Schools, and 6 per cent in summer college 
courses for teachers. 

In this distribution there is another coincident situation, which 
should give room for thought as to the lack of persistence of teachers 
with low type certificates for the higher and more permanent type. 
A very small percentage of these teachers attend summer college 
courses for teachers, according to King only 6 per cent. This per- 
centage is also corroborated by an investigation carried on by the 
writer at State College, summer of 1921, when in a group of 411 
teachers taking special methods courses in the elementary subjects, 
only 25 were one room rural teachers, or six (6) per cent, the same 
per cent reported by King as attending summer college courses. 

To sum up the possible relationship that exists between the 
persistence with which teachers holding temporary certificates with 
their desires for teachers' institutes and summer sessions, it may be 
said that 80 per cent of the rural teachers in the two typical counties 
studied held temporary certificates; (this per cent also corresponds 

1'' Seerley, Homer, "Practical Value of Institute System," "Educational Re- 
view," Nov. 1908, p. 357. 

18 King, L. A., "Status of Rural Teacher in Pa.," Ch. V. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 101 

pretty closely with the per cent reported by King/^ who says that 
76 per cent of rural one room teachers hold provisional or professional 
certificates), that of this 80 per cent, only 27 per cent prefer summer 
sessions to the institute; that this preference undoubtedly shows a 
certain attitude of this group towards professional growth and zeal; 
that this attitude is contradictory of the claim made for the institute; 
that "many times it stimulates teachers to a more serious view of 
the profession and to enlarged scholarship," as one superintendent 
has put it; that a different attitude is to be expected from a group 
of teachers in service in our rural schools, "25 per cent of whom 
have had only an elementary education, and that 2 per cent of 
these 25 per cent had not even completed this elementary training. "^^ 
Legal enactments, of course, will now (1922) demand that such teach- 
ers secure by 1927 the type of certificate that represents a minimum 
of a two year Normal School course, or its equivalent. This, however, 
does not eliminate the facts of the preferences in the two counties 
studied. 

Teachers^ Reasons for Retaining County Institute 
Teachers in answer to the question whether or not the institute 
should be abolished, throw an important light on the actual function- 
ing of the institute as a means of improving them in service. A 
very large majority of teachers are in favor of retaining the institute. 
What reasons are given for its retention? Not all teachers — in fact 
only a few — gave reasons for its retention. An examination in two 
counties, Chester and Susquehanna, shows that out of 239 who 
answered the inquiry, only 150 gave reasons for the retention of 
the institute. These replies are typical. We note the following: 
Table XXIX — Reasons for Retention or Institute 

Reasons Chester Susquehanna 

1. Helpful and valuable 21 4 

2. Inspirational 34 29 

3. New Ideas and New Methods H 4 

4. Solves Problems 4 

5. Discussion of School Problems 2 

6. Helps inexperienced 3 

7. All others 7 9 

101 49 

19 King, "Status of Rural Teacher in Pa.," Op. Cit. Ch. V. 

2" "Study in Teacher Shortage," Pa. State Dept. of Education, unpublished, 
quoted by King in Op. Cit., Ch. IV. 



102 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

These answers are typical of those found in ten other counties. They 
are merely valuable to show that teachers regard "inspiration" as an 
important reason for retaining the institute. It is noticeable, how- 
ever, that 33 out of 101 replies in Chester County stressed "new 
methods and ideas," a reason easily understood when the institute 
program of this county is studied. 

We may seriously question, therefore, whether these answers are 
an indication that the institute actually functioned in these two 
cases in doing what is ordinarily meant by improvement of teachers in 
service. 

Judgment of Educators 

In addition to the judgment of county and district superintend- 
ents, supervising principals, and teachers as to the value of the 
institute as an agency in the improvement of teachers in service, 
we have the judgment of a number of educators in many fields — men 
who have worked on the institute, who have observed its organiza- 
tion and conduct, and whose observation is valuable because of its 
source and reliability. 

Dr. Frank P. Graves, Dean of School of Education, University of Pa. {1919): "We 
could far better afford to spend the public money in furnishing opportunities for 
serious study at first class summer schools to the ambitious teachers than in lavishing 
it for the indifferent ones upon the vaudeville and hot air that too often passes as a 
teachers' institute."^! 

Supt. Baisbaugh, Lebanon: "The actual results in teacher training claimed for 
institutes are usually greatly overestimated by those who conduct the institutes. 
Many allow their enthusiasm to direct their judgment and they accept appearances 
as results."22 

Annual Teachers' Institutes . . . have for some years been under sus- 
picion as wise means of investing public funds and they are quite often 
a source of dissatisfaction to the older and better prepared teachers. ^^ 

The following excerpts are taken from replies to an inquiry by the 
writer on Institutes.. 

(a) In your experience with County Teachers' Institutes, have you found that 
they actually contribute to the professional training of teachers? 

(b) If so, in what ways?^* 

^' Schoolmen's Week Proceedings — 1917, p. 73. 

^^ Schoolmen's Week Proceedings — 1917, p. 75. 

^^ Ruediger — "Spirit of Teaching Corps" — School and Society, Jan. 26, 1918. 

^^ Inquiry to Educators, March 1, 1922. q. v. Appendix. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 103 

Dr. P. P. Claxton — former U. S. Com. of Education: "I believed that the institutes 
were accomplishing much good in the way of creating spirit and enthusiasm and 
co-operation. On the other hand, I have wondered just what other results, if any, 
came from them. Very frequently the lectures do not take hold on any very definite 
problems of school management or instruction. Many of those which I have heard, 
and which seemed to be most pleasing to the teachers, seemed to me to have very 
little practical value, except for the things which I have already mentioned." 

Dr. J . II. Minnick, Dean School of Education, Univ. of Pa.: "Only in a very small 
way. My only experience was as a county school teacher. The institutes were very 
poor. The most I got out of them was association with other teachers. This does not 
say they could not be made worth while." 

Dr. D. A. Anderson, State College, Pa.: "They make a very slight contribution 
if any at all. A few good things are driven home and remembered by those who hear." 

Dr. C. E. Chadsey, Dean of School of Education, Univ. of III.: "Yes, when they are 
really professional institutions. The opportunity for teachers of the county to hear 
at first-hand the ideas of leaders of educational thought and practice ought to have 
certain effects in improving their work and stimulating them to a higher type of 
educational activity." 

Dr. W. C. Ruediger, George Washington University, Washington, D. C: "Very 
little." 

Dr. George D. Straycr, Columbia University, N. Y.: "In my opinion, county insti- 
tutes as ordinarily organized have little value for the professional training of teachers. 
In some cases these institutes have been organized in such manner as to make them 
valuable. Where teachers have been definitely organized in groups corresponding to 
their professional work, I mean by grades, rural schools, high schools, and the like, 
and where they have been asked to consider definite problems of teaching, organization, 
discipline, and the like, involving their discussion of these problems some good has 
been accomplished." 

W. S. Dejfenhaugh, Specialist U. S. Bureau of Education: "In reply to your inquiry 
regarding teachers' institutes, I would say that a teachers' institute, as usually con- 
ducted contributes very little to the professional training of teachers." 

Dr. Pay son Smith, Com. of Education, Mass.: "Out of my experience in the insti- 
tutes of Pennsylvania and other states, my conclusion is that they are of undoubted 
value. They serve as a means of impressing on teachers the magnitude and the dignity 
of the profession with which they are connected. This is a matter of no small value 
especially to beginning teachers and to teachers in small schools." 

W. H. Allen, Director, Institute Public Service, New York: "There are some 
institutes that are demoralizing and chloroforming and others that are a veritable 
baptism in their vision." 

Dr. Frank P. Graves, Comm. of Education, State of N. Y.: "It depends upon the 
institute. Ten years ago the Pa. institutes were worth little, except as vaudeville. 
Lately, especially since the great educational leader, Dr. Finegan came to the State, 
they have become more departmentalized and effective." 

(b) "Presenting new phase of educational and administration, content, and 
methods. I consider the so-called 'inspirational address' simply a disguise for 'hot air.'" 

Dr. Chas. H. Judd-Director of School of Education, Chicago University: "I think 
a great deal depends on the teacher herself in this matter. If she has done some 
reading in advance of the institute and if she is stimulated to follow the institute with 



104 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

some professional reading, I think that the outcome is always advantageous. On 
the other hand, I have known teachers who seemed to me to get very little indeed 
out of these institutes. 

I think some of the poorest educational addresses that I have ever heard have been 
made at these institutes. They seemed to me to be utterly without justification. 
When I contemplate that type of address and the careless teacher, I say — discontinue 
the whole business." 

Dr. W. C. Bagley, Teachers^ College, New York: "I have had a good deal of experi- 
ence in teachers' institutes. Sometimes I have felt on returning from an institute that 
my time had been weU spent and that the teachers assembled gained something from 
the experience. More frequently I have been forced to conclude that my own time was 
wasted and the time of the teachers worse than wasted." 

Dr. L. D. Coffman, President University of Minnesota: "I have always felt that 
we are spending much more money on county teachers' institutes than we should, and 
yet, on the other hand, I am thoroughly convinced that they have been a tremendous 
force throughout the country in improving the professional attitude of teachers, but it 
seems to me that the long institute, that is the five day institute, has practically 
served its purpose, and that only an occasional person is thoroughly well qualified in 
every way to address teachers by the thousands. 

Most county institutes in the past have suffered because the only one prepared 
to speak was the speaker himself. The teachers in attendance are not expected to make 
any preparation whatsoever. They came to listen. Listeners who have nothing to 
contribute seldom ever carry much away with them." 

Mr. A. C. Monahan, former Specialist U. S. Bureau of Education: "The institute 
does so much to keep teachers interested professionally in her work that it is still, I 
think, very valuable." 

Dr. J. H. Kelley, Secretary P.S.E.A. Harrisburg, Pa.: "Yes — 

1. Methods of Teaching 

2. Professional Spirit 

3. Broaden Educational Outlook 

4. Inspirational UpUft. 

Dr. J. L. Eisenberg, Prin. Slippery Rock State Normal School: "In many counties, 
no. In many counties rather remote from the centers of population, yes, very much so. 

By instruction in methods, management and organization of the school. 

Inspiration of the teacher. 

By personal contact of those engaged in similar work. 

Instruction of the community." 

Prin. C. H. Fisher, Bloomsburg State Normal School: "In a few Institutes where 
they had a definite program. 

Professional attitudes. 

Educational Outlook. 

Educational Methods. 

Roxanna A. Steele, Director Training School, Bloomsburg State Normal: "Well 
planned county institutes have contributed greatly to the professional training of 
teachers. The instances, however, are rare. The ten day institute is far superior to 
the so-called five day institute which is usually practically a three and one-half day 
institute. The summer school has almost entirely done away with the necessity of a 
ten day institute, and anything less than this is of questionable value." 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 105 

Miss Mabel Carney, Prof, of Education, Teachers College: "I believe very heartily 
in good teachers' institutes but I quite agree with you that it is time to pause and 
ask whether Pennsylvania is getting value received for the large amount of money 
expended in this activity. 

Your institutes on the whole are as good as any I have ever worked in and I have 
done work of this kind in about 35 states. But even at this, I do not think you are 
obtaining the results which might be secured. . . . 

If I were reforming your Pennsylvania system of institutes, I should urge teachers 
to attend summer schools and then reduce the institute to a three day meeting. For 
this shorter meeting I would then secure several of the biggest and best educational 
leaders of the country as general lecturers and then devote two or three half day 
sessions to section meetings. With this I should keep the teachers at work con- 
stantly during the year upon constructive plans and policies which could be reported 
at the institute." 

Miss Margaret T. Maguirc, Supervising Principal McCall Public School, Philadel- 
phia, Pa. who has appeared on many Penna. Institute programs: "My experience in 
Institute work has been so varied that the results obtained at different times are almost 
incomparable because of their great variation. My general impression is that the 
short Institute is the more successful method of instructing teachers. When, however, 
the superintendent has control of his people, and selects well trained speakers, organ- 
izing so that definite training in sectional work is given, the large Institute gatherings 
are full of inspiration. I have been interested to note that the teachers in rural dis- 
tricts have knowledge of many of the great speakers on the platform. They really 
have more intelligent knowledge of these speakers than the ordinary city teachers." 

Contribution of the Institute on a Specific Group 

It is a very difficult matter to arrive at the real affect of an 
institute program on any group of teachers. The judgment of teach- 
ers and supervisors is naturally more or less tinged by their precon- 
ceived notion of the institute. The only fairly certain method of 
checking up any institute would be a close follow-up of the institute 
by first hand observations of the teachers' school room procedure 
and teaching before and after the Institute. This is very difficult 
because of the time required and the testing that would have to be 
employed. An effort was made, however, to follow up the institute 
programs of three counties by submitting a direct questionnaire to a 
selected group of 50 graded teachers, 25 high school teachers, 40 
rural teachers, and twelve principals. The questionnaire used is given 
in the appendix. (*'f") It will be noticed that this inquiry was 
direct, specific, and based entirely on the principle that to answer 
the questions specifically would reveal some functioning of the 
institute program. 

No attempt will be made to analyze any more of the replies than 
will indicate tendencies. It is admitted that the number of those 



106 



COUNTY TEACHERS INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



replying is too small to base definite conclusions. The sampling, 
however, is fairly suggestive. 

Question 2 
Table XXX — Ways in Which the Last County Institute Was Valuable: 





No. 


Answering 


Insp iration 


Methods 


Information 


Graded Group 


50 
25 
42 
12 


44 
22 
38 
10 


24 
7 

11 
6 


10 

3 
7 



5 


High School 


6 


Rural 


7 


Principals 


2 








129 


114 


48 


20 


20 



Forty-two per cent of these three groups gave inspiration the 
highest value; methods second with 17.5 per cent; information third 
with same per cent. Almost 20 per cent of those in the rural group 
answering gave the social contacts equal value with methods; five or 
12 per cent, gave school management. The high school group gave 
information equal rank with inspiration. None of the principals 
gave methods; 3 of the high school teachers gave methods. 

Among the rural teachers three with 31, 15, and 15 years of 
experience respectively, gave inspiration the first value. On the 
other hand one teacher with 17 years of experience, gave inspiration 
the lowest value. Three teachers with 13, 8, and 6 years of experience 
respectively, gave methods of teaching the second value. The ma- 
jority of the principals who had had long years of experience gave 
inspiration the highest value, or second highest. This was generally 
true of the teachers who had had many years of experience. 

Question 3 
Direct Values of the last County Institute as to 

a. Errors it has helped you to correct; 

b. New methods it has given you; 

c. Impetus given you to study or read: 
Professional books — name them: 
Non-Professional books — name them: 
Professional magazines — name them: 

d. Devices, schemes, influences, etc., last institute has contributed in improving 
your school work. 

It was very difi&cult to get replies to this question. Perhaps, 
it was too definite and too exacting. Of the 50 graded teachers, 23 did 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 107 

not answer 3a; 30 failed to answer 3b; 30 did not answer 3c; 31 
did not answer 3d, 

Some of the errors corrected as a result of the institute were: 

Keeping out of the rut; definite assignments; errors in arithmetic; study habits 
of children; poor methods in teaching of reading; irresponsibihty in children; careless 
reading; too much time spent on technical grammar; errors in paper cutting; errors 
in teaching of reading and language (7); impatience. Some of the new methods used 
were those to be expected as the reverse of the errors corrected. The methods spe- 
cifically mentioned are few and of a very general character. Some are: 

Short cuts in arithmetic; more concrete work in arithmetic; stressing of arithmetic; 
silent reading; better methods of teaching reading, language, and drawing. 

These replies are an excellent illustration of the way in which 
an institute program may function. An examination of the programs 
of the three counties from which these teachers come shows that in 
one county Arithmetic was stressed in a competent and interesting 
way, while in another the teaching of Reading or Language and 
demonstration classes in drawing and paper cutting were features. 
None of the work of the other score or more of instructors seems to 
show in any definite way. Occasionally some one lecturer's name 
is mentioned as being one who "inspired," but nothing specific is 
seldom given. 

Replies to the third question also indicate that the graded group 
did not receive much impetus to read professionally either books or 
magazines. Only 20 out of 50 answered the query bearing on profes- 
sional reading. It is fair to assume that any teacher who did any 
reading as the result of the stimulus of the institute would take credit 
for it. Of the 42 rural teachers, 10 said that they had been influenced 
to read; 32 did not reply to this query; 16 said that they were reading 
professional periodicals; 26 made no reply. The books and maga- 
zines that were mentioned were for the most part the books recom- 
mended on the county reading lists, or books written by several 
of the lecturers, or specifically mentioned by the lecturers. Of the 
16 who reported out of the rural group as reading professional peri- 
odicals, 14 were reading the same one — a magazine sold on the 
so-called "institute tables." Some mentioned "Literary Digest," 
"Ladies Home Journal," "National Geographic Magazine," and 
the "Pathfinder" as professional periodicals. The replies as to 
devices, schemes, influences, etc. (3d) are meager, and in most 
cases a repetition of 3a. Thirty-one failed among the graded group 
to answer this. The high school group invariably passed this by. 



108 



COUNTY TEACHERS INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



The replies to question 4 showed very little functioning on the 
part of the institute. The replies of the graded and high school 
groups were negligible. The replies of the rural and principal groups 
are summarized as follows: 

Question 4 

Did the last County Institute influence you in any of the following 
activities? 



Table XXXI 



Ungraded Group Principals — 12 
42 



Yes 

Use of building 10 

Children's Health 12 

Co-operation with Home 19 

Changes in Course of Study 7 

Community identification 5 



Some of the typical answers under question 4 are: 



No answer Yes No answer 



32 


4 


8 


30 


5 


7 


23 


6 


6 


35 


2 


8 — 2 none 


37 


2 


9—1 
nothing 



Rural or Ungraded Group 



a. Use of Building-Parent-Teacher Assn. ; 
Lit. Soc'y.; 111. Lectures. 

b. Sanitation; correct posture; ventila- 
tion; fresh air; round shoulders; im- 
portance of care of the body. 

c. Co-operation with home; association 
formed; visiting parents and sick pupils; 
interest of home in school aroused; better 
discipline thru Parent-Teacher Associa- 
tion. 

d. Stress practical. 



Principals 



a. Corn shows; singing school; corn show. 



b. More exercise; care of teeth; impor- 
tance outbuildings; better heating. 



c. P-T Assn. formed; get acquainted 
with parents; interest of home in school. 



d. Added public speaking and mental 
arithmetic; stress practical. 



After all the most suggestive situation in the matter of question 
number 4 lies in the fact that a very large proportion of the groups 
failed to answer the question, which was very direct and plain. 

Question 5 — "Inspiration" 
Since the term ''inspiration" plays such an important function in 
this entire inquiry, it was thought advisable to attempt to determine 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 109 

to what degree, if any, inspiration functions in better teaching, in so 
far as it may be possible to measure such an abstract conception. 
The term "inspiration" is widely and loosely used. Any address 
or performance of a professional nature that gives pleasure, is 
labelled "inspiring." If inspiration functions as a factor in the 
training of teachers there must be some dynamic mental and spiritual 
force which urges them to self improvement and to greater service. 
In the last analysis inspiration can result only in developing certain 
professional attitudes. These attitudes will assist a teacher to grow 
either academically, professionally, or in skill. 
The question asked these groups was: 

"If the last Institute was inspiring, state in what respects or in what way it was 
inspiring?" 

This may or may not be a fair question. If, however, more than 
50 per cent of those teachers who have answered the questionnaires 
give "inspiration" as the highest value of the institute; if superin- 
tendents and other supervisory officials attach the same high value 
to this quality; and if the institute programs are practically 50 per 
cent inspiration, then it seems that this question is fair. This 
question was answered by 16 out of 42 rural teachers, 9 out of 12 
principals; 16 out of 25 high school teachers, and by 21 out of 50 
grade teachers, or a total of 62 out of 129 represented in the four 
groups. Many of the answers are interesting but not illuminating. 
Invariably the term is defined in terms of itself, or in terms of 
certain well known adjectives. With the exception of several specific 
references to several lecturers as "inspiring speakers" or "inspiring 
men," there is nothing tangible or concrete in the 62 replies to give 
any other result than many good sermons might be expected to 
give to the members of a congregation. There is nothing to show 
in the replies that this same "inspiration" did not exist before the 
institute. The terms usually used to explain this contribution are 
"enthusiasm," "courage," "uplift," "zeal," "interest," "influence," 
"culture," "earnest," "responsibility of the teacher," "inspire to 
something higher," etc. A few examples will illustrate how teachers 
view the inspirational function of the institute: 

"It gave encouragement and inspiration rather than anything definite." 
"More interest for my work — more desire for better results." 
"Dignity of service and responsibility; need for teaching our pupils to become 
good citizens; inefficiency of myself." 

"Aroused new interest, gave new thoughts." 



no 



COUNTY TEACHERS INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



"To make my school better, to get my pupils interested, develop love for study, 
to make pupils feel that I am their friend." 

"Inspired to making teaching a profession and to earn a Normal School Certifi- 
cate." 

"Inspired me to do my best and not to worry; find out what is useful in after life." 

"Felt that the standard of my school should be improved, that instruction could 
be better, and that methods were not the best." 

"Greater respect for the profession." 

"Realization of the aims of teaching." 

"Taught me to work more zealously." 

"Made me feel I was not doing all I could." 

"Effect was uplifting and helpful." 

The judgment seems to be very strong that the institute program 
does develop a high sense of professional earnestness and mindedness. 
That the institute, whether thru its program or thru its group 
consciousness and stimulation, does center thought on the ideals of 
teaching service there can be no doubt, even tho, undoubtedly, 
many of the expressions concerning the inspirational function are 
conventional and more or less the result of habit. This function of 
the institute is no dififerent from that of any other convention where 
suggestive stimulation plays a large function. 

Question 6 — Improvement of Teachers^ Work After the Institute 
Question six — "Do you think your school work has improved 
appreciably since the last County Institute?" was a direct inquiry 
to test specifically thru the person's own judgment whether the 
institute functioned in self improvement. The replies are no doubt 
tinged by personal bias. The replies are as follows : 

Table XXXII 

No. in group Answering Yes No 



Graded Group 

Ungraded Group . . . 
Principals Group . . . 
High School Group . 



50 


30 


25 


5 


42 


30 


28 


2 


12 


5 


4 


1 


25 


15 


8 


7 



129 



80 



65 15 



Here again we are impressed with the fact that 47 did not answer 
the question. Of those answering 81 per cent believe that their work 
did improve since the Institute. We would expect an improvement 



38 


37 


1 


33 


32 


1 


6 


5 


1 


20 


19 


1 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 111 

without the institute. Fifteen or 19 per cent have not improved — 
probably also to be expected. One-half of the high school group 
believe they have not shown any improvement. 

The next question bears only indirectly on the training of teachers 
in service. The question does, however, imply that the institute 
programs studied did not provide for instruction in special subjects. 

Question 7 — Special Instruction 
Table XXXIII — Need for Instruction in Special Subjects? 

No. in Group No Yes No 

Answering 

Graded Group 50 

Rural Group 42 

Principals Group 12 

High School Group 25 

129 97 93 4 

With very few exceptions those who believe that instruction in 
special subjects is necessary, evince the fact that they would remain 
after the institute session to attend purely voluntary classes in those 
subjects that they are interested in. A number think that these 
subjects can be done in demonstration classes, by observation, or by 
round table conferences. The value of the replies to this question 
lies in the fact that very little work is being done in the institutes 
in the special subjects like manual arts, commercial subjects, drawing, 
music, physical education, and nature study. To this extent there is 
little doubt that the institute program does not function. There are 
institutes — notably Chester County — where volunteer after or pre- 
institute classes are conducted with much success. 

Thus far this phase of the functioning of the institute has dealt 
with the attempt to determine by a follow-up method the extent to 
which the program has actually functioned in the teaching process 
after the dismissal of the institute. The remaining part of this 
phase of the inquiry concerns itself with the judgment of teachers 
as to the "actual contribution of the institute" to the teacher. 

Question number 9 (See Questionnaire "b", Appendix) relates to 
this judgment. It was answered by nearly 2500 teachers in 12 coun- 
ties and 4 districts. The tabulation of these judgments follow in 
Table XXXIV. 



112 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

Table XXXIV — Most Valuable Contribution of Institute 
(Teachers' Judgment — 12 Counties, 4 Districts) 



Contribution 



First 


Second 


Third 


284 


180 


217 


703 


615 


317 


863 


474 


281 


40 


110 


117 


157 


479 


473 


220 


478 


589 


38 


125 


417 


2305 


2461 


2411 



Per Ct. 

(First 
Value) 



Knowledge Subject Matter . . . 

Methods of Teaching 

Professional Inspiration 

Conference with Co. Supt 

Exchange of Ideas 

Discussion of School Problems 
Social Contacts for Teachers . . 



12.3 
30.5 
37.4 
1.7 
6.8 
9.5 
1.6 



It is seen that 37 per cent of those answering the question gave 
"professional inspiration" as the highest or most valuable contribu- 
tion; 30 per cent gave "methods of teaching" as the highest; 12 per 
cent "knowledge of subject matter" as the highest; while only 21 
per cent gave highest contribution to all the remaining five. All 
the other included "conference with the county superintendent," 
exchange of ideas, "discussion of immediate school problems" 
and "social contacts for teachers." Only 9 per cent assigned the 
most valuable contribution to the opportunity to "discuss immediate 
school problems," 6 per cent to the chance to "exchange ideas," 
about 2 per cent to "social contacts for teachers," in spite of the fact 
that superintendents usually assign much value to the social features 
of the institute, particularly for the rural teachers. Much of this, 
of course, is due to the discontinuance in many counties of the 
evening sessions, and to the improved transportation facilities 
which bring teachers to and from the institute daily. 

It is not the part of this study to question the validity of the 
judgment of those who attend the institute. Certainly some weight 
must be given to this judgment, especially of so many. This judg- 
ment indicates a preponderance of value by teachers to professional 
inspiration as the highest contribution, with methods of teaching as 
second, and very little to the other possible and desirable con- 
tributions which go to make up the real live educational movements, 
a knowledge of which stamp a teacher as professionally minded. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 113 

The discussion has been based on the assumption that it is 
necessary to train teachers in service and that it will probably be 
necessary to do so for many years to come. This will or should be 
true in every profession that has the elements of improvement within 
it. Medicine, law, industry, commerce are not stagnant. Science 
and experience will always work changes and improvements. The 
same is true of teaching. The successful teacher is the teacher who 
wants to grow professionally; who wants to keep abreast of the 
times. However, in Pennsylvania we are confronted with a more 
serious problem than that of training teachers in service. Our 
problem is literally to train them while in service to meet higher 
legal requirements for the service. Our program calls for ade- 
quately qualified teachers on a basis never attempted before in any 
but one or two states. It means that every teacher after 1927 must 
have the equivalent of a two year Normal School Education. After 
that year no one will be allowed to enter the profession who is not 
at least a Normal School graduate. This situation from now on is 
bound to have an effect on our entire County Institute situation. 
Our teachers by that time will be trained as never before. They 
should then have all that the Institute has claimed in addition to 
academic and professional preparation. What after that time will 
be the function of the County Institute? Will it cease to be an agency 
designed primarily for the improvement of teachers in service, or will 
it assume a new function? In the meantime, can it really contribute 
anything to the legal professional requirements of teachers? 

Already the County Superintendents (March 1922) have held a 
conference to consider what to do with the institute in order to fit it 
in with the new comprehensive plan of producing better qualified 
teachers i&r the state. In the light of the present study radical 
changes will be necessary if the institute is to contribute any real 
teacher improvement. 

As an Agency to Influence the Public 

In the chapter on "Historical Origins" it was pointed out that a 
very urgent reason for organizing institutes was the potential influ- 
ence that they might and did exert on a pubKc dormant and apathetic 
and often hostile to public education. Because of a lack of competing 
attractions and the scarcity of diversions from such meetings the pub- 
lic responded in its attendance. The very nature of the programs 
offered appealed to the pubHc. The newspapers gave much pub- 



114 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

licity to the institutes and focused attention on educational problems. 
The evening sessions of the annual institutes were events of great 
importance to the community, even as they still are to-day in some 
parts of the state. Interest on education was naturally centered 
around the annual county institute. The public was materially 
affected. 

Social conditions have changed, however. The ease of trans- 
portation and communication, the opportunities for leisure and 
recreation, the many counter attractions, such as moving pictures, 
cheap theaters, automobile joy rides, dancing, etc., have almost 
wiped out the evening sessions. In 1917, eleven institutes had 
already eliminated the evening sessions, while in 45 counties in 
1919, eight had done away with these sessions that formerly attracted 
the public and created an educational influence with it. The news- 
papers no longer give the same amount of space to the institute 
meetings, except in a very few places. In our larger county seat 
towns, the press hardly comments on the institute, while the general 
public seldom in the larger places realizes that the teachers are in 
tov/n. Educational meetings and strictly educational instruction 
do not make the kind of copy that editors want. To-day it is a 
remarkable feat of the publicity expert if he can influence the press 
to give space and prominence to large educational conventions like 
the one in Pennsylvania or the important mid-winter sessions of the 
National Department of Superintendence. Where these large 
meetings should have columns, they are fortunate if they secure 
inches. It is, therefore, no wonder that the county institute no 
longer secures the publicity it formerly had and thus can no longer 
influence the public as it did, without this publicity. A good illustra- 
tion of this is. the falling off in the public's attendance at teachers' 
institutes. The largest number of spectators present at all the 
institutes in 1876 was about 34,000. The largest number of specta- 
tors present in 1917 was 27,000; in 40 counties in 1921 it was 7900.^6 
When it is considered that there were less than one-third as many 
teachers in 1876 as there were in 1921, and that the population 
of the state in 1876 was a little more than three and one-half million 
against eight million seven hundred thousand in 1920, thus naturally 
affording a larger field to choose an attendance, we can determine 
how public interest in the Institute has declined, and with this 

25 Unpublished Data, Department Public Instruction. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 115 

decline the opportunity of the institute to influence public opinion. 
Furthermore, there were nine institutes out of forty whose data are 
available for 1921 where the attendance of spectators at one time 
was fifty or less. In other words in practically one-fourth of the 
institutes, there were hardly any spectators. In that case we can 
reasonably infer that the newspapers of these times would give little 
publicity to the proceedings. 

Another reason why the public no longer attends the institute is 
the changing nature of its organization from the general session type 
to the highly departmentalized type. It was in the former type that 
the professional lecturer told his jokes and stories and enthused his 
audience with the inspirational address. He probably does the same 
to-day, but the public doesn't know it. The public thinks that all 
the instruction is "technical" and dry and it stays away. The 
public attendance at our county institutes is ridiculously low if we 
are to take the reports of the county superintendents as our author- 
ity. The public can't be influenced unless they attend or have the 
opportunity to read the press reports. 

It is unfortunate that the institute does not generally create 
publicity and does not foster that healthy sentiment for public 
education that it formerly did. Teachers attend the institute 
because it is their business to do so and because they are paid for it. 
The public feels this. It is doubtful whether it is conducive to good 
school sentiment to have the public feel that teachers must attend 
the institute as a "school" for teachers. The institute is a purely 
business proposition. It is a very worth while aim to influence 
the public. Education would be the gainer if our county educational 
meetings could be so organized and so programmed that they would 
not only be centers of attraction for the general public but centers of 
educational propaganda as well. There is no doubt that what educa- 
tion needs to-day in addition to the adequately qualified teacher, both 
academically and professionally, is a sane and safe public sentiment 
for the public schools. If the institute can contribute to such a senti- 
ment, then we might say that it influences the public. It is very 
doubtful if it does so to-day. There is no direct evidence that the 
institutes do so. By comparison with the influence of voluntary state 
associations, whose membership frequently includes the larger 
majority of the teachers of the state, it is very doubtful whether 
institutes do influence the public. In many cases the influence of a 



116 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

State association in creating influence upon the State Legislature is 
small. 

In fact, it seems to he the opinion of men from all over the country, 
who have been prominent in these state associations, that without excep- 
tions, the associations exert little influence in legislative matter s.^^ 

This, of course, was before equal suffrage was extended. If, 
however, a powerful state association, voluntarily organized cannot 
influence the legislative committee, how can teachers' institutes 
appealing to a larger group with no organized publicity means, in- 
fluence the general public? 

Institutes Have Some Benefits 

County institutes have worthwhile contributions. The rank and 
file of the teachers have shown in the large majority of cases that 
institutes have been helpful to them, even tho they are not in a posi- 
tion to express in concrete form where such benefits have been. 
Authorities outside the state have generally granted that the Penn- 
sylvania institutes are above the average thruout the country. Miss 
Mabel Carney says that the Pennsylvania Institutes "on the whole 
are as good as any I have ever worked in and I have done work of this 
kind in about 35 states."^^ 

But in evaluating the county institute relative values must be 
considered. That every county institute program has something of 
value in it cannot be doubted. No one can be rash enough to say 
that the entire institute as it is to-day, or as it was in the past was 
useless. The Editor of the "Journal of Education," Dr. A. E. 
Winship, who has probably appeared on more institute programs 
than any other person in the U. S. has well expressed in his inimitable 
way an estimate of the institute: 

I felt that the institutes were well worth while, because they had so little 
professional technique and so much that was giving new Hfe to the school life of a 
teacher. It is impossible to teach a teacher in a stray hour of a week's institute, 
but for teachers to have a chance to enjoy a real concert, to hear a lecturer, even if 
he were merely a platform trickster, and to enjoy the wholesome sense of . . . 
brightly and spicily put across, was of inestimable value.^* 

Continuing, Dr. Winship says: 

28 "Teachers' Voluntary Associations" — ^Alexander — p. 37. 
2^ Excerpt from answer to inquiry. 
2^ Excerpt from answer to inquiry. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 117 

It is very foolish to try to discount anything because a lot of it is nonsense and 
the best of it nonsense to a lot of teachers. 

Dr. Winship has in this happy, but facetious fashion, summed up the 
values of that type of county institute which has been going out of 
existence gradually in many counties. That type of institute was a 
real pleasure for most teachers because it did not require much effort 
on the part of teachers to listen. 

In the strictly rural counties, and there are many such counties 
in Pennsylvania, the institute means much to the teacher who has not 
been very far away and who has little real opportunity for social 
contacts and for the chance to exchange ideas. In these counties, 
the institute ought to be so organized that these very human touches 
might be given by the institute. But within five years every Penn- 
sylvania teacher must have secured the equivalent of a Normal 
School training. It is only fair to suppose that by that time every 
teacher in this state will have had the opportunity to attend a sum- 
mer school or a Normal School, where these human contacts will 
likewise be developed and cultivated. 

A unique value of the institute has been its power to organize and 
unify the teachers back of movements for improving the teachers' 
status. Institutes have acted in their corporate capacities as units 
of the Pennsylvania State Educational Association, in fact, under the 
new organization of the Association, they are regarded as such. 
This power must be preserved, either thru the county institute or 
voluntary associations. 

The institute has also served, to a certain extent, in developing 
certain professional ideals among teachers. The chief difficulty has 
been that there has been too much insistence on this type of pro- 
fessional inspiration "instruction." It is this that has brought re- 
proach on the institute. The institute has not been meeting the school 
room needs of teachers, at any rate, not the needs imposed upon 
teachers to-day. 

Then, too, the institute has acquainted many teachers with 
some notable men and women not only in the field of education, but 
in various walks of public life. The institute platform has been the 
attraction, as it were, for many persons of this type. While their 
message has not always been of the strictly pedagogical kind, the 
mere presence of these men and women in the midst of a group of 
teachers assembled in county institute, has lent dignity to the 



118 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

profession and has centered for the time being publicity on the 
schools. This feature of the institute has been valuable. 

While many counts have been charged up to the inefficiency of 
the institute, much of it is due possibly to a too strict adherence to 
tradition, and to the lack of expert direction in the management of 
the entire institute program in Pennsylvania. But in spite of the 
deficiencies pointed out, there is a good deal of truth in what Com- 
missioner Payson Smith of Mass. has said: "In general, it has 
seemed to me that the high professional zeal of the teaching profes- 
sion in Pennsylvania must be due in a large measure to the insti- 
tutes."29 

2' Smith, Payson, Extract from answer to writer's inquiry. 



CHAPTER VI 

Finances of the Institute 

One of the most essential principles of modern efficiency is 
the cost of an enterprise, and this cost in relation to the product 
turned out. In education this principle is well known, for we are con- 
stantly asking how much schools are costing, and we are establishing 
standards of costs. We go further than this — we are actually trying 
to measure the products of the school by the use of standardized 
measurements. The survey has familiarized us with unit costs. 
We are comparing the efficiency of a school system by the amount of 
money put into the system and its relation to the product. Hence, 
we can reasonably say that a school system that has a high per 
capita expenditure either in terms of population or in terms of average 
daily attendance, or total enrollment, should, all other conditions 
being favorable, have a high degree of efficiency. If expert examina- 
tion shows such a system inefficient, then an examination of costs or 
the finances of the system will necessarily show waste, poor organiza- 
tion, or inefficient teaching. Similarly, if a school system is turning 
out a poor product, the very first procedure is to examine the amount 
of money spent on the system. This investigation will at once open 
up a variety of financial questions — such as assessments, tax rates, 
ability to support schools, indebtedness, etc. 

Likewise, a study of the finances of teachers' institutes in the 
counties in Pennsylvania suggests a careful consideration of the cost 
and the product; the ability of some counties to support efficient 
institutes; the wide range of per capita expenditures; the wide range 
of enrollment fees; and the further wide range of expenditures on 
lectures, entertainment, and instructors. Above all comes the 
eternal question so frequently asked, "Are Institutes costing too 
much?" Is the money invested in the Pennsylvania County and 
District Institutes productive of the results expected from the 
investment? Do the ends attained justify the expense and satisfy 
the purpose of the institute? Is the criticism true that "some 
institutes probably do not fulfill their functions, and do not pay 
for the expense of time and energy that goes into them?"^ 

1 Betts, "The County Institute," Schoolmen's Week Proceedings, University of 
Penna. 1919, p. 210. 

119 



120 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

The data for this chapter are taken primarily from the state 
report of the Department of Public Instruction of Pennsylvania for 
1918,2 y;^Q\i ^ept records are essential to any study of costs and 
efl&ciency. Reliability of the reports of the county superintendents 
on their county institutes is taken for granted. The only possible 
exception that can be taken to their reports is a source of error 
that may creep in because the receipts of the institute are not very 
carefully differentiated among monies received from lectures and 
entertainments. These two items are frequently combined. How- 
ever, since only $16,000 were received in the county institutes from 
these two sources, any error that may arise is very slight. 

Sources of Revenue 

The sources of revenue of the county and district institutes are 
from the following items: enrollment fees charged teachers, appro- 
priations from the counties, admissions charged to evening entertain- 
ments and lectures. An additional source of revenue for the district 
institutes is the school board which may contribute to the support of 
the district institute if the fees of teachers and county aid are not 
sufficient. 

The chief source of support is the enrollment fee charged teachers. 
In all but two counties, this fee admits not only to the day sessions, 
but the night sessions as well. This fee varied in 1917 among the 
sixty-six counties from $1.00 to $3.00. In one county the fee was 
in 1917 $1.00; in 2, $1.25; in 10, $1.50; in 3, $1.75; in 13, $2.00; 
11, $2.25; 15, $2.50; in 11, $3.00. The median fee is from $2.00 to 
$2.25. In 46 district institutes held in 1917, in which 49 districts 
participated, the fee varied from nothing to $6.50. In 11 districts 
there was no fee; in 1 it was $1.00; in 3, $1.50; in 9, $2.00; in 3, 
$2.25; in 5, $2.50; in 5, $3.00; in 4, $4.00; in 5, $5.00; in 1, $5.00 to 
$6.50. In 40 counties for which fees are known for 1920 the fees 
are as follows: 1 at $1.25; 2 at $1.50; 2 at $1.75; 5 at $2.00; 2 at 
$2.25; 9 at $2.50; 1 at $2.75; 10 at $3.00; 4 at $3.50; 1 at $3.75; 
3 at $4.00. The median fee in these counties is $2.50 to $2.75 against 
$2.00 to $2.25 two years before. The missing counties would not 
affect this median. This is an indication that the enrollment fees 
have increased a little since 1917. The county that had an enroll- 
ment fee of $1.25 is Centre, while Adams, Franklin and Potter had 
$4.00 fees. 

''No published financial data on Pa. Institutes since 1918. Many Institutes 
were not held in 1918 on account of Influenza. - 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 121 

The enrollment fee is an important consideration in determining 
the ability of a particular county to finance an institute that has 
instructors of a type that demand high pay. It is evident that the 
fee should ordinarily vary inversely as the number of teachers in a 
county, i. e., the smaller the number of teachers, the higher the fee, 
and vice versa, the larger the number of teachers, the smaller the 
fee. This, however, is better theory than practice as a study of en- 
rollment fees in the small counties will show. Thus the five counties 
that report the smallest number of teachers and smallest total expendi- 
tures charge only the median fee — three, $2.00; and two, $2.50. 
These same counties report payments to instructors of $105 to $270. 
On the other hand, the 11 counties that have an enrollment fee of 
$3.00 have a much larger number of teachers than the five counties 
that report the smallest total expenditures. Five of these counties 
have an average of 520 teachers, a number that is larger by 141 than 
all the five small counties compared. The other six counties that 
have a three dollar fee have an average number of teachers of 213. 

A careful study of enrollment fees and the receipts from teachers 
for supporting the county institute reveals glaringly the inequality 
of opportunity for teachers thru their institutes. This is especially 
true if the institute is to be an agency that will in some way or other 
improve teachers in service. The counties already referred to are 
probably charging fees that are large enough for that county, but 
not nearly large enough to secure the opportunities that these very 
counties should have in their institutes. It is the old story of an 
inequality of distribution of aid. The counties that have a large 
number of teachers can keep down the enrollment fee and still have 
ample support. For example: There are nine counties — Allegheny, 
Berks, Cambria, Chester, Fayette, Lancaster, Luzerne, Schuylkill 
and York — each of which receives from its teachers as much or more 
than Union, Snyder, Juniata, and Perry combined. These received 
from their teachers in all $1,275. There are eight other counties, 
each of which collects from its teachers within $100 to $150 as 
much as these four combined. These eight counties had a surplus of 
$3,868, an amount which is nearly three times as large as the amount 
spent on instructors by Union, Snyder, Juniata, and Perry, and 
nearly four times as large as that paid by Cameron, Forest, Fulton, 
Montour, and Pike ($1,013), with an enrollment of 379 teachers. 
There is another group of counties — Pike, Wayne, and Monroe — 
which collects from their teachers less than one half as much as 



122 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

Luzerne, contiguous to one of the three, and very near the other 
two. The same contrast is seen among a group of counties in the 
western part of the state — Elk, Cameron, and Forest — which com- 
bined collect from their teachers (375), fees to the extent of $796, an 
amount $36 less than Venango's enrollment fees. 

These contrasts in the abilities^of certain counties to secure 
workable funds for institutes is a fundamental problem. It is as 
striking as the problem of securing adequate revenue to support 
schools in districts that can the least afford to do so. The remedy 
may lie in one or two of several propositions, viz., larger fees, larger 
county appropriations, state aid, or regional institutes. 

The city, borough, and township institutes offer less contrast in 
the matter of ability to support institutes than the counties. There 
are in Pennsylvania 130 districts that may hold separate institutes, 
but of this number only 49 did so, the remaining 81 districts com- 
bined with their own county. In 1917, 6607 teachers attended the 
district institutes. The average fee was $2.00, as was the median 
fee. The total receipts of these institutes was $27,452. Of this sum 
the teachers paid $12,102; the county, $7,086, evening sessions, 
$659, all other sources — in most cases contributions from school 
boards — $3,075. A balance of over $4,000 from the year before made 
up the year's resources. 

The total receipts of the county institutes in 1917-18 was $94,614;^ 
of the district institutes, $27,452, making a grand total of $122,066. 
Of this amount $62,216 was in teachers' enrollment fees ($50,104 
county; $12,102 districts). Thus it is evident that 51 per cent of 
the resources of the institutes was from teachers' fees. Evening 
lectures brought in $10,175 (County, $10,641; Districts, $134). 
Evening entertainments added $6,387 (County $5,762; Districts, 
$625). Evening sessions were, therefore, responsible for $17,162 of 
the year's resources, or 18 per cent of the county institute resources. 

Fifteen per cent of the institutes' resources came from the county 
treasuries. According to law, the institute receives assistance from 
the county at the rate of SS^/s cents a day per teacher, provided 
the total amount does not exceed $200. Fifty-nine counties con- 
tribute $200 each to the county institute; the other seven counties 
contribute amounts varying from $113 to Pike to $191 to Juniata. 

3 Forty counties' receipts in 1921-22 were $70,250; same 1917-18, $58,715. (From 
unpublished and partial data.) 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 123 

Thus Allegheny with 1706 teachers receives county aid of $200, while 
Pike with 68 teachers receives $113. Allegheny actually receives aid 
at the rate of 123^ cents a day per teacher, while Pike receives the 
full allowance, or 33}/^ cents per day per teacher. This method 
of appropriating rj>oney to the county institute was first devised in 
the Act of 1867*, and reincorporated with scarcely any essential 
change in the Act of 1911. The Act of 1887 made it permissible for 
all districts with 75 or more teachers to hold separate institutes. 
This was changed in 1895 to a minimum of 50 teachers, still further 
reduced to 40 in the Act of 1911. Under this permission forty-three 
separate institutes were held in 1917-18. These separate institutes 
drew from the county treasuries amounts varying from $103 to 
$200. The 43 separate institutes drew from the county treasuries the 
grand total of $7,086, while the 66 county institutes were aided to the 
amount of $12,937. Here again we must note that an inequality 
of a distribution of aid exists. The districts that hold separate 
institutes have 20 per cent of the teachers attending institutes, 
but they receive 35 per cent of money contributed by the counties. 
The 66 counties have 80 per cent of the teachers, but they receive 
only 65 per cent of the aid given by the counties 

EXPENDITURES OF THE INSTITUTES 

An analysis of the large items of expenditures in the county and 
district institutes reveals the same general and wide variation as is to 
be expected from the varying facilities of the counties and districts. 
The total expenditures of the 66 counties were $83,209;^ of the 49 
districts holding separate institutes, $24,144, or a grand total of 
$107,353 against receipts of $122,066. Eight counties reported total 
deficits of $776.59, while four districts reported deficits of $546. 
The county deficits ranged from $6.00 to $72, while the district 
deficits ranged from $2.33 to $295. 

Character of Expenditure 

The main and largest items of expenditures in their orders were, 
instructors, evening entertainment, evening lectures, rent, printing, 
and all others. The following table gives the character of expendi- 
tures, amount under each, and percentage of total expenditures of both 
the county and district institutes. 

* Forty counties in 1921-22 total expenditures were $57,518 (published data). 
Same counties in 1917-18 total expenditures were $50,353. 



124 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

Table XXXV — Character of Expenditures — 1917-18 





Instruct- 
ors 


Ev'g Lec- 
tures 


Ev'g En- 
tertain- 
ment 


Rent 


Print- 
ing 


Other 


Total 


County 


35331 

42 
16767 

70 


6959 

8 
3318 

14 


15480 

19 
1041 

4 


6115 

7 
271 

1 


4567 

5 
438 

2 


14755 

18 
2305 

9 


83209 


County per cent. 
Total Expenditures .... 
District 


100 
24144 


District Per Cent 

Total Expenditures 


100 


Total 


$52098 
48.6 


10277 
9.4 


16521 
15.3 


6386 
6. 


5005 

5. 


17060 
16 


107353 


Total Per Cent 


100 



From the above distribution of expenditures it is very evident that 
while the district institutes spent 70 per cent of their total expendi- 
tures on instructors, the county institutes spent only 42 per cent 
on the same item. While districts spent 18 per cent on evening 
lectures and entertainment, the counties used 27 per cent for this 
same purpose. This variation, however, may be justified from the 
fact that the counties derive 18 per cent of their total receipts from 
evening sessions, while they consume 16 per cent of their total 
receipts on this same item. The receipts of the district institutes 
from evening lectures and entertainments is a negligible quantity, 
tho 18 per cent of their outlay is for these two items. Forty-eight and 
six tenths per cent of the outlays of the 109 Institutes in Pennsylvania 
in 1917-18 was for the fees of instructors in the day sessions.^ 

Because complete data are not available at present (Mar. 1, 1922), 
it is impossible to make a study of expenditures since 1917-18. 
However, unpublished data give valuable information bearing on 
this phase. Forty counties expended in 1921-22 on Institutes the 
grand total of $57,518; these same counties spent in 1917-18, 
$50,353. In 1921-22 these 40 counties spent $20,854 for instruction, 
while the same counties spent in 1917-18, $19,498, It is thus seen 
that in spite of increasing cost of all Institute talent, etc., these 40 
counties actually spent only $7,165 more on all items and $1,356 
more for instructors. A further analysis shows that 25 counties 

^ In 1921-22 in 40 counties 36.5 per cent of total expenditures was for instruction. 
In 1917-18 in same counties 38.7 per cent of total expenditures was for instruction. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



125 



spent more and 15 less than in 1917-18, while 24 spent more and 16 
less for instructors. This situation, no doubt, is accounted for by 
the fact that 64 representatives from the Department visited 35 of 
these 40 counties. These 64 representatives, delivering on an average 
of two addresses each per day, and many present more than one 
day, helped to reduce instructional expense, altho it cannot be 
accurately said how much. 

Amouni Paid Day Instructors 
The following table will indicate the range of total amounts ex- 
pended on instructors in the several counties and districts. 

Table XXXVI — Range of Amounts Spent on Instruction* 





Under 
$200 


200 
to 
300 


300 
to 
400 


400 
to 
500 


500 
to 
600 

10 

9 

23 


600 
to 
700 


700 
to 
800 


800 
to 
900 


900 

to 

1000 


1000 

to 

1100 


1100 

to 

1200 


No. Counties 

Per Cent Counties 


3 

5 


6 
12 

6 
16 


17 

9 
23 


11 

7 
18 


3 

2 

5 


2 

3 
8 


2 

1 

3 


1 


3 


1 






Districts 

Per Cent Districts 


2 

5 













Fifty-seven per cent of the counties spent from $300 to $600 on 
instructors, while 15 per cent spent less than $300. The range 
among the counties is from $105 to $1,225. The range among the 
districts is from $85 to $820. Whether county institutes can be of 
the same uniform standard on such a basis of wide variation of 
outlays for the instructional work of the institute is a serious problem 
for consideration. The further analysis of the programs presented, 
instructors employed by the several institutes will shed more light 
on this phase of the institutes. 

Instructors^ Fees 
From hitherto unavailable and unpublished data, it is possible to 
distribute the fees or honorariums paid Institute instructors in the 
40 county institutes, as shown in Table XXXVII. 
The median fee paid was $169. The range of the first quartile was 
$0-$99; second $100-$169; third $170-$205; fourth $205-$325. The 
vast majority of these fees are for 5 days' services; 25 per cent are 
for services from one to three days. 



8 In 40 counties 1921-22 expenditures for Instruction were $20,854 (unpublished 



data). 



In same counties 1917-18 expenditures for instruction were $19,498. 



126 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

Table XXXVII — Distribution Instructors' Fees — 1921-22^ 



Amount Paid 


No. 


$0-$24 


5 


25^9 


10 


50-74 


5 


75-99 


15 


100-124 


11 


125-149 


16 


150-174 


27 



Amount Paid 


No. 


$175-$199 


13 


200-224 


16 


225-249 


7 


250-274 


5 


275-299 





300-324 


3 


325- 


2 



The entire amount spent on instruction in these 40 counties in 
1921-22 was $20,854. It is rather surprising and very significant 
that $9,000 or 43 per cent of the total amount expended for instruc- 
tion was paid to 20 persons; 18 of these were from without the state. 
The fee for these 20 instructors for the 5 days' service ranged from 
$150 to $325, the average being $210 a week. There were in all 135 
fees paid for instruction. 

While these data are not easily available for the year 1917-18, 
it is quite probable that the ratio would be very little different. 

Evening Session Expenditures 

A table of distribution of expenditures for evening lectures and 
entertainments would show the same wide variations which indicates, 
one would suppose, wide variation in equality. The total receipts 
from the evening sessions in 1917-18 were $17,162, while the cost of 
the talent for these sessions in County Institutes was $26,798, a loss 
of $9,636. Unpublished data from 40 County Superintendents' 
financial reports of the Institute in 1921-22 present an interesting 
financial study in the matter of the profitableness of evening enter- 
tainments. Twenty-five (25) counties report a loss on evening 
entertainments ranging from $84 to $819, or a total loss of $5,910, 
while only three (3) counties report a net gain from evening enter- 
tainments of $969. Twelve of these counties had no evening 
entertainments. 

This, naturally, raises the question whether or not evening enter- 
tainments pay financially. Certainly, the public does not seem to 
contribute sufiiciently to make evening entertainments self-support- 
ing. This conclusion, however, cannot be substantiated until we 
know just what part of the enrollment fee is meant for evening 
lectures and entertainment. It is true, however, that 15.5 per cent of 

' Unpublished data and reports Dept. of Public Instruction. 



COUNTY TEACHERS INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



127 



the entire enrollment fees is devoted towards making up the deficit 
and thus decreases the assets for instruction. 

Table XXXVIII — Character Expenditures — County — Period 1911-17 





Instruct- 
ors 


Evg. 
Lect. 


Evg. 
Ent. 


Rent 


Print- 
ing 


Other 


Total 


1911-12 

1917-18 


$27,709 

35,331 

37.7 

42.4 


10574 
6959 
14.4 

8.4 


12810 

15480 

17.4 

18.6 


6673 

6115 

9.1 

7.3 


3596 

4567 

5. 

5.5 


12000 

14755 

16.3 

17.7 


73362 
83209 


Percent 1911-12 

Per Cent 1917-18 





The above table is self explanatory. There has been an increase both 
in the amount spent on instruction and on the evening lectures and 
entertainments, but less on evening lectures and more on enter- 
tainments. 

From fragmentary data for 1920-21, there was spent on instructors 
and their expenses the sum of $46,113 against $35,331 in 1917-18; 
and $23,449 for evening lectures and entertainments, a little more 
than in 1917-18, and about the same as in 1911-12. In 40 counties 
in 1921-22, only 36.2 per cent of the total expenditures went for 
instructors. 

To emphasize this wide variation further the following tables of 
Per Capita Expenditures on instructors, total expenditures, in the 
counties and districts are offered; also the distribution of total 
expenditures, number of teachers attending in the several counties. 
A similar table for the entire state would show similar wide variations. 

Table XXXIX shows that the average per capita expenditure 
for all items is nearly five times as large in the five smallest counties 
as it is in the five largest counties. It also shows that the five smallest 
counties spend 81 per cent as much for evening lectures and enter- 
tainment as they do for instructors. 

A table of per capita costs for entire institute and for instructor 
outlays in the district institutes shows the same wide variation as 
among the counties. Table XLI contrasting per capita expendi- 
tures between the five largest cities and five smallest of that group 
shows this variation. 

The organization of an institute in counties that enroll from 
200 to 500 teachers will differ very little in so far as number of 
instructors is concerned. Since most of the institutes in counties 



128 



COUNTY TEACHERS INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



Table XXXIX — Per Capita (Teachers) Expenditures 





No. 
Teachers 


Total 


Instructors 


Evening Lect. 
-Entertainment 


Five Largest Counties 

(No. Teachers) 


6267 


1.76 


.74 




Allegheny 


1706 
1403 
1139 
1160 
859 


.92 
2.00 
2.06 
2.27 
1.62 


.44 

.69 

.91 

1.62 

1.36 




Luzerne 


43 


Schuylkill 




Westmoreland 


70 


Washington 








Five Smallest Counties 


379 


8.14 


2.68 


2.19 


Cameron 


52 
92 
84 
83 
68 


12.00 
5.00 
9.00 

11.50 
4.00 


5.00 
1.14 
3.21 
3.00 
2.00 


7 32 


Forest 


2 19 


Fulton 


2 07 


Montour 

Pike* 




73 









*Pike spent the smallest amount among county institutes for instructors, but the 
per capita for this item was more than twice that of Fayette Co. which spent the 
largest amount, $1225, on instructors. Such oddities not only illustrate the financial 
straits that these counties find themselves in, but mark their county superintendents 
as financial geniuses for being able to fitnance any institute at all. 

of this size have not more than four departments, it is evident that 
the cost of the institute in such counties should vary only little. 
The opposite, however, is true. Counties of this size (200 to 500 
teachers) predominate in Pennsylvania. Thirty-six counties, or 54 
per cent of the entire number, enroll from 200 to 500 teachers at 
their institutes. The range of expenditures in these 36 counties is 
from $600 to $1,900. Greene County with 263 teachers enrolled 

Table XL — Distribution of Attendance in County and District Institutes 

Number Attending 



Under 


100 


100-200 


200-300 


300-400 


iOO-500 


500-600 


600-700 


700-800 












County 
District 




5 
17 


8 
13 


12 
4 


12 

5 


12 
1 


5 


3 

1 


3 










800-900 


900-1000 


1000-1100 


1100-120C 


) 1200-1300 


1400-1500 


1700-1800 


County 


2 








2 





1 


1 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 
Table XLI — Per Capita Expenditures Districts 



129 



No. Teachers 



Total Ex. 



Instructors 



Five Largest Districts 

Scranton 

Reading 

Johnstown 

Erie 

Harrisburg 

Five Smallest Districts 

Vandegrif t 

Titusville 

Punxsutawney . . 

Mt. Carmel 

Redstone 



650 
418 
366 
364 

342 

44 
50 
54 
55 
58 



1.68 
1.70 
4.00 
2.50 
2.76 

9.00 
7.00 
9.00 
5.00 
5.00 



.80 
1.00 
1.10 

2.20 

5.00 
6.50 
4.00 
5.00 
4.92 



reports total expenditures of $1,900. This same county reports the 
next to the largest amount paid to instructors — $684 — in this large 
group of counties. Standardized institutes in these counties should 
spend nearly the same amount of money, but the opposite is true. 
One county spends under $700; 4 report $800; 5, $900; 5, $1,000; 
4, $1,100; 3, $1,200; 6, $1,300; 5, $1,400; 1, $1,500; 1, $1,800; 1, 
$1,900. (Expenditures reported to nearest hundreds, only.) 

The logical conclusion from this great variation in expenditures 
is inevitable. Either the institutes differ widely in their efficiency, 
or some county superintendents are able to secure their instructors 
and other talent at greatly reduced rates. 

THE COST OF THE INSTITUTE 

Having analyzed the resources and the expenditures of the 
organization known as the institute, there reamins the consideration 
of the real cost of the enterprise. The cost of the institutes in 
Pennsylvania is made up from three items — the compensation of 
teachers for attending the institute; the contribution of the county 
treasuries to its support, and the admission fees paid by the public 
to the evening lectures and entertainments. The first of these three 
items is the most weighty. Under the Act of 1887 teachers were for 
the first time compelled to be paid the sum of two dollars a day for 
their attendance at the institute; in the law of 1911 this was in- 
creased to three dollars a day; the legislature of 1919 increased this 
allowance to four dollars a day. 



130 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

The following table of the cost of the institute for the year ending 
June 30, 1918, sums up the cost: 

(1) Compensation to teachers, exclusive (Philadelphia and Pittsburgh) $ 544,496 
27617 at county institutes at $15 week 

6416 at city, boro. and township $15 week 
34031 at $15 a week $544,496 

(2) Paid out of County Treasuries to all institutes $20,024.32 
To Co. Institutes $12,937.33 

To Dist. Institutes 7,086.99 $20,024.32 

(3) Paid by Public to Evening Sessions County Institute $16,404.78 
Paid by Public to Evening Sessions Dist. Institute 759 . 67 



$ 17,164.45 
Total Cost (Minimum)— 1917-18 $581,684.77 

The enrollment fees paid by teachers, $62,216, is not included in 
computing this cost since the fees are paid out of the compensation of 
teachers, which has already been counted as cost. The minimum cost 
of the teachers' institutes in 1921 is readily estimated by adding to 
the above cost an increase of 33}^ per cent in compensation allowed 
teachers, not taking into consideration the increased number of 
teachers: 

Cost 1917-18 $581,684.77 

Additional Compensation 170,155.00 

Total Cost to Public $751,839.77 

This, however, is the very smallest estimate that can be made of 
the institutes' cost. In many of the districts where separate institutes 
are held the school boards allow the regular salaries in addition 
to the allowance of $4.00 a day. Again, the $20 allowance for the 
week does not, in the majority of cases, cover the teachers' expenses 
in attending the institute when the teachers' preparations for the 
institute, traveling expenses, board, and incidentals are taken into 
account. No one can accurately estimate this additional cost. The 
sum of $1,000,000 as the estimated cost to the public and to the 
teachers is probably not too high. Certainly, the irreducible minimum 
is three-fourths of a million dollars. 

COMPARISONS OF COSTS 

While it is well nigh impossible to measure the results of the 
work of the institute, there should be no difficulty nor any question 
to compare its cost with other agencies whose function is or has been 
to improve teachers in the service, or whose function is to train 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 131 

teachers. Our first thought is to compare the expenditures of 
teachers' institutes with the state aid for our thirteen state normal 
school in 1917-18. A few facts in connection with the finances of 
these teacher training institutions at this time may serve the purpose 
of comparisons:'' 

(1) State appropriation — $290,239 — 38% of amount spent on institutes. 

(2) Salaries of teachers and officers — $395,493 — 52%, amount spent on institutes. 

(3) Number of students at Normal Schools 1917-18 — 6615. 

(4) Per Capita State Appropriation — $43.00. 

Per Capita cost per teacher of institutes 1917-18 — $17.00. 
Per Capita cost per teacher of institutes 1921-22 — $22.00. 

(5) Mortgages owed by Normal Schools to individuals, $681,941. 
Mortgages owed by Normal Schools to State, 749,146. 

(6) Number of students graduated 1918 — 1672. 

All the data given in connection with the State Normal Schools 
seem to show very clearly that our state has not done so well for 
these training schools as it has done for our institutes through the 
legal mandates upon the school districts. The cost of institutes 
would have taken care of the entire state appropriation and teachers 
and ofiicers' salaries, and have had enough left to pay for all the 
books, stationery, and educational equipment at the thirteen schools 
in 1917-18. There were during this same year 6,615 students at the 
Normal Schools, attending 36 weeks. The state appropriation to 
each of these students averaged $1.33 a week. The deficiency bill 
passed by the legislature in 1919 would add $1.33 more. In other 
words, during a great emergency when every possible assistance 
should have been rendered our candidates for the profession of 
teaching, the state assisted student teachers to the extent of $2.66 
per week, but it compelled the school districts and the pubHc to 
contribute an average of $22 per teacher to support teachers' insti- 
tutes. To carry the comparison a little further we may say that 
the entire debt of the State Normal Schools to the state could have 
been paid by the money spent on institutes one year; or twenty-five 
per cent of the amount spent on institutes would have been sufl&cient 
to give each normal school teacher an increase of $500 a year in 
salary. 

Other Comparisons of Costs 

We can also compare the cost of the institute with the cost of 
tuition in the 480 summer schools in the U. S., in the summer of 1918. 

» State Reports, 1918. 



132 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

The average cost per student in the summer schools in 1918 was 
$24.14.^ This was for an average session of six weeks. As already 
pointed out, the institutes in Pennsylvania in 1919 cost $22 per 
teacher attending. This is within two dollars of the cost of tuition 
in a six weeks' summer session in 1918. (Average.) The cost of our 
summer schools in Pennsylvania in 1918 was $97,548. Three thou- 
sand, ninety-one students attended these schools. The average cost 
in Pennsylvania was $29 for a six weeks' session, or an average of a 
little less than $5.00 a week.^" This rate is 22 per cent as much as 
the cost per teacher per week of the institute. 

Three-quarters of a million dollars would give each of the 12,000 
who attended a summer school in 1921, $62.50 to pay towards tuition 
and board. In four years nearly every teacher in Pennsylvania, 
exclusive of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, could attend one six 
weeks' summer school session and receive $100 which would pay 
practically all necessary expenses. The institute in four years would 
for the most part contribute only four weeks training, in fact only 
three, because usually one day is wasted out of five. This does not 
take into consideration the difficulty of such a plan of carrying out a 
continuous and connected program over a period of years with a 
very mobile teaching population. 

Hundreds of districts in Pennsylvania could employ additional 
teachers or special supervisors for the money now being spent on 
institutes. Closer supervision would be an adequate compensation 
for the three-quarters of a million dollars. The compensation now 
allowed our 10,000 rural school teachers for attending the institutes 
($200,000) would secure eighty additional assistant county superin- 
tendents in Pennsylvania at a salary of $2,500 a year, thus consider- 
ably increasing the supervisory force over our rural schools. This 
raises the question whether or not more adequate supervision of our 
rural schools would not contribute more effectively to the improve- 
ment of teachers in service and their teaching. This will be con- 
sidered in another chapter. 

The sum of $750,000 would, furthermore, allow each of the 13 
state normal schools in the state nearly $58,000 which would more 
than take care of the summer sessions and the extension work of 

' Report on Summer Schools 1918, Bulletin U. S. Bureau of Education, No. 31, 
1919. 

1" Bulletin No. 31, 1919. Op. cit. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 133 

these institutions. This same amount could be used to organize 50 
summer schools or six weeks duration by giving each $10,000 and 
also by giving each normal summer session $20,000. 

The making of these comparisons is no argument for abolishing 
the County Institutes. It is, admittedly, a concrete method of 
comparing what agencies employed in teacher training costs, rela- 
tively speaking. No one can say that our Normal Schools have cost 
too much money nor that summer sessions of College and Normal 
School are too expensive. At the same time there can be no compari- 
son as to the work done by Normal Schools, summer sessions, and 
teachers' institutes. 

In the inquiry sent out on March 1, 1922, to 28 leading Educators 
in Pennsylvania and outside the state there was one question bearing 
on the cost of institutes: 

(a) In view of the program in this state that teachers after 1927 must have higher 
professional attainments, do you think that the money spent on County Insliluks in 
Penna. (at least $750,000 annually), might be spent for more elective teacher training 
purposes? (b) If so, in what way or ways? 

Fourteen out of 22 answered this question. All of these were of the 
opinion that the expenditure of three quarters of a million dollars on 
Institutes in Pennsylvania was too much. The remaining eight did 
not comment on costs. A few of these opinions may be worth while: 

Specialist U. S. Bureau of Education: "The $750,000 now spent on teachers' 
institutes in Pennsylvania could be used to good advantage in increasing the salaries 
of instructors in the State normal schools, so the State normal schools would have the 
best qualified teachers in the State. Or, if not used for this purpose, it could be used 
on the summer sessions at the normal schools and at State CoUege." 

Prof, of Education: "From what I know of institutes in general, both by having 
attended them and on account of the requirement ordinarily imposed upon me as an 
instructor in institutes, I think it would be best to spend the money now spent on 
institutes upon summer schools." 

Prof, of Education: "Chiefly in maintaining good summer schools, extension 
classes, and in giving scholarships to teachers who are willing to take leaves of absence 
for the purpose of qualifying for teacher certification. Local institutes of one day 
duration with real educational quality might be held in the centers where a number of 
teachers could attend." 

Dean of School of Education: "I believe that great encouragement to the State 
Normal School of Penna. in the way of more financial support of the Summer Schools 
would constitute a better agency for professional growth than a large amount expended 
on Institutes." 

Dean of School of Education: "By paying tuition or put tuition in summer school, 
extension course, etc." 



134 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

Dean of School of Education: "If in the rural counties where no satisfactory sub- 
stitute for the institute has as yet been worked out, you could in some way insure the 
attendance upon a summer session of a great majority of the teachers including those 
who have had a normal school course or college course, then I think the $750,000 
annually spent upon institutes might more appropriately be devoted to provide subsi- 
dies to these teacher training institutions." 

Former U. S. Com. of Education: "I believe the $750,000 could be used to much 
better advantage, either in a new form of institute, or in summer schools." 

Director Training School: "I should register my vote for the expenditure of the 
$750,000, which has in the past gone to county institutes, towards the support of 
more effective teacher training work." 

Official P.S.E.A.: "Where a wide-awake progressive superintendent arrays a 
program graded to suit the various grades of service and schedules group meetings 
with competent instructors, not entertainers, the money is well spent. In other cases, 
much of the money is worse than wasted !" 

Normal School Principal: "By attendance at summer schools, etc., etc." 

Normal School Principal: "Promotion of Extension Courses. Provide helping 
teachers for rural schools." 

In stating how they would spend this same money for more effective 
teacher training they invariably mention summer schools, extension 
courses with college credit, greater aid to summer and Normal schools, 
and scholarships for teachers willing to take leaves of absence for 
teacher certification. 

SUMMARY OF FINANCES OF INSTITUTES 
1. There is great inequality of ability among certain sparsely 
settled counties to support efficient institutes. This prevents 
counties that really need the institute from organizing a strong 
program. 

2. There is a great and wide variation in per capita institute 
expenditures, both in instruction, and evening lectures and entertain- 
ments. 

3. Institute costs too much money in proportion to its produc- 
tivity. 

4. Institute costs compared with other teacher training agencies 
are much higher and seem out of proportion. 

5. Less than one-half (42 per cent) of the county Institute's 
expenditures is spent on instruction; more than one-fourth (27 per 
cent) is expended on evening sessions; the balance (31 per cent) is 
spent on rent, printing, song books, etc. Ten counties in 1921-22 
out of forty reported larger expenditures for the evening sessions than 
for day instruction. 

6. Three quarters of a million of dollars is the minimum direct 
cost of county and district institutes. 



CHAPTER VII 

General Status of Teachers' Institutes in U. S. 

It is not the purpose of this chapter to present any thorogoing 
study of institutes in the United States. That would be foreign to 
the object of the entire investigation which concerns mainly the 
efficiency of Pennsylvania County Teachers' Institutes. This phase 
of the investigation, will, however, throw light on certain tendencies 
in their application to the Institute problem in the state. Another 
value of this part of the study will be the comparison that may be 
made with a similar study by Ruediger^ in 1911, when valuable 
data were assembled on the legal basis of teachers' institutes in the 
U. S. This chapter attempts to bring up to date much of the data 
then gathered. 

The Method Employed 

The data in this chapter have been gathered largely thru the 
means of a questionnaire^ submitted to every Department of Educa- 
tion in the 48 states. Forty-six of these departments, in many cases 
the superintendents themselves, answered the inquiry. These data 
have been checked up with the digests of laws on education made by 
Hood^ and brought up to 1919. Other means have been employed 
to bring the information as nearly as possible up to date in 1922. 

The writer has also had the opportunity of checking up these 
data with a recent study^ that has been also made in a similar way, 
but along somewhat different lines. This chapter will be sup- 
plemented by the use of some of these data so as to make this phase 
of the investigation as productive as possible, for comparative pur- 
poses, to the entire institute problem being investigated. 

' Ruediger, W. C, "Agencies for Improvement of Teachers in Service," Op. Cit. 

^ Questionnaire "An Inquiry on Teachers' Institutes" — see Appendix. 

' Hood, W. R., "State Laws Relating to Education," Bulletins U. S. Bureau of 
Education, No. 47, 1915; No. 23, 1918; No. 30, 1920. 

* Lommen, G., "The Teachers' Institute for the Training of Teachers in Service," 
Journal of Rural Education, Oct. 1921, pp. 60-68. 

135 



136 



COUNTY TEACHERS INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



CotJNTV Teachers' Institutes 





Insti- 
tute 
Still 

Held? 


Local 

Institute 

Also? 


Area 
Covered 


Does Law 

Specify 

Time for 

Holding 

Institute? 


Who Deter- 
mines Time 
if not Speci- 
fied by Law? 


Length of 

Institute? 

(Days) 


Must it 
be Held 
on Con- 
secutive 
Days? 


State 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


1. Alabama 


Yes 


No. 


County or 
Group oi 
Counties 


No 


State Supt. 


4 


Yes 


2. Arizona 


Yes 




1 County 
or 2 or more 


No 


Co. Supt. 


At least 
3 










3. Arkansas 


Yes 


No 


County 


Yes 


Law 


5 


Yes 


4. California 


Yes 


May 


Co. Dist. 
with 70 or 
more teach- 
ers 


No 


Co. Supt. 


3 


Yes 


5. Colorado 


Yes 




Several 
Counties 


No 


Inst. Com. 
of 3 in each 
District & 
State Supt. 
& President 
Normal 
School 


Normal In- 
stitute 
10 


Yes 








6. Connecticut .... 


1 Day 
Meet- 
ing 

(N( 


Yes 
)t Inst.) 


Disregard 
Co. Lines 


No 


State Bd. & 
Local Bd. 


1 




7. Delaware 


No 




























8. Florida 


(Maintains Summer Schools) 








9. Georgia 


Yes 


No 


1 or more 
Counties 


No 


State Supt. 


5 


No 


10. Idaho 


Yes 


No 


1 or more 
Counties 


No 


Co. Supt. 


5-15 daj's. 
Teachers 
must at- 
tend 5 days 
with pay 


Yes 


11. Illinois 


Yes 


No 


One Co. 


No 


Co. Supt. 


S 


No 



COUNTY TEACHERS INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



137 



County Teachers' Institutfs 



Which. If Any 
Groups of Teach- 
ers are Excused 
from Att.? 


Are Teach- 
ers Paid 
for At- 
tendance? 


How Much? 


Penalty for 
Non-Att.? 


Nature of 
Penalty? 


How Finan- 
ced? 


Teachers 
Fees 




8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 




Attended Sum- 
mer School 


Usually 


Salary 


Yes 


Contract 
Cancelled 


State Aid 
$6500 


$.75 


1 


Excused by Co. 

Supt. 


Yes, (un- 
less excused 
by Supt.) 


Salary 






State Aid 
$500 




2 










Those Att. Ap- 
proved Summer 
Schools 


No 




Yes 


Loss of Li- 
cense 






3 












Yes 


Salary 






Co. & fees from 
Teachers who 
need Cert. 


$2.00 


4 












No 




No 




State, not more 
than $300 


$1.00 


5 










Voluntary 


Occasional- 

ly 


Salary 


No 




State Aid & 
Local Dues 




6 






















7 
































8 


















None 


Sometimes 


Varies 


May Fine 


$2.00 


County School 
Fund 




Q 






None Except CI. 
A Cities 


Yes 


Salary 


Yes 


No Salary 


County Aid 
$150 


Exam. 
Fees 


10 


None 


Only if In- 
stitute, is 
held during 
School Yr. 


Salary 


Yes 


Prof. Stand- 
ing Credits 


Fees 


$1.00 


11 



138 



COUNTY TEACHERS INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



County Teachers' Institutes 





Insti- 
tute 
Still 

Held? 


Local 

Institute 

Also? 


Area 
Covered 


Does Law 

Specify 

Time for 

Holding 

Institute? 


Who Deter- 
mines Time 

if not Speci- 
fied by Law? 


Length of 

Institute? 

(Days) 


Must it 
be Held 
on Con- 
secutive 
Days? 


Sute 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


12. Indiana 


Yes 


Yes— 1 day 
month also 
Sat. in each 
city & twp 


One Co. 


No 


Co. Supt. 


5 


Yes 


13. Iowa 


Yes 


No 


One Co. 


Yes 




2 


Yes 








14. Kansas 


Yes 


Yes certain 
Days anc 
Subjects 


One Co. 

(Sumr 


Yes 

ner) 


Co. Supt. 


S-20 


Yes 


IS. Kentucky 


Yes 


Co. Assoc, 
also Co. 
Tea. Assoc, 
per. Org. q. 
V. Law 


2 or more 
Counties 
1-4 Cos. 


Yes 




5 


Yes 








16. Louisiana 


Yes 


Parish Yes 
— 1 da. mo. 


Parish 


No 


State Bd. of 
Inst. Mgt. 
& Supt. 


Usually 
5 




17. Maine 


Yes 


Yes 


One Co. 


No 


Committee 


1-2 


No 






18. Maryland 


Yes 


No 


One Co. 


No 


State Supt. 


10 


Yes 


19. Mass 


Yes 


Yes — May 




No 


State Bd. of 
Education 


1-5 


No 








20. Michigan 


Yes 


Yes 


County or 
Joint 


No 


State Supt. 


1 day to 6 
weeks 


No 


21. Minnesota 


Yes 


No 


One Co. 


No 


Co. & State 


3-5 


No 


22. Mississippi 


Few 


No 


3 or more 
Counties 


No 


Co. Supt. 


20-30 


Yes 


23. Missouri 


No 


No 
























24. Montana 


Yes 
Few 
Co. 


No 


Joint 


No 


Co. Supt. 


3-5 


Yes 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



139 



County Teachers' Institutes 



Which, If Any 
Groups of Teach- 
ers are Excused 
from Att.? 


Are Teach- 
ers Paid 
for At- 
tendance? 


How Much? 


Penalty for 
Non-Att? 


Nature of 
Penalty? 


How Finan- 
ced? 


Teachers 
Fees 




8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 




Co. — None 


Yes 


Salary 


Yes 


Loss of Li- 
cense 


County Aid 
$100 


$l-$3 


12 


None 


Yes 


Salary 


Yes 


No Salary 


State $50 
Co. $150 


None 


13 


Those Att. Sum- 


No 




Yes 


Crs. for Cert. 


State $50. 
Co. $100. 


$1 — Exam. 
$1 — License 
Fee 


14 


mer Schools 






City 


Yes 


Salary 


Yes 


Cert. 


Fees 

$1-S2 


$l-$2 


15 




Yes 


Salary 


Yes 


2 days Salary 


Fees, Fines & 
State 




16 








Any 


Yes 


Salary 


No 




Varies State 
$1500 


2S-S0C 


17 






Those Att. Nor- 
mal Schools 


Yes 


Salary 


Yes 


No Salary 


All 




IS 






Any 


No 




No 




Co. Aid 


25-50c yr. 


19 








None 


Yes 


Salary 


Yes 


No Salary 


M.T— $1 each. 
F.T— 50c each 
State— -$100. 


$1— Men 
50c Women 


20 




Yes 


Salary 


Yes 


Certificate 
Revoked 


State 




71 


mal Schools 






Those Att. Nor- 
mal Schools 


Yes 


$5-$ 10 


Yes 


No Salary 


State 

$150 




77 




















23 


















H.S. 


Yes 


Salary 


Yes 


Loss of Cert. 


County 


Fees 


24 



140 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



County Teachers' Institutes 





Insti- 
tute 
Still 

Held? 


Local 
Institute 

Also? 


Area 
Covered 


Does Law 

Specify 

Time for 

Holding 

Institute? 


Who Deter- 
mines Time 
if not Speci- 
fied by Law? 


Length of 

Institute? 

(Days) 


Must it 
be Held 
on Con- 
secutive 
Days? 


State 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


25. Nebraska 


Yes 


No 


2 or more 
Counties 


No 


Co. Supt. 


S 


No 


26. Nevada 


Yes 


Yes 1 in ea. 
Dist. in odd 
years 
make S 


State Inst. 
(Several 
Coimties to 
Districts in 
St.) 


No 


State Supt. 


4 


No 


27. New Hampshire. 


Yes 




County 
(Varies) 


No 


State Supt. 


1-3 


No 








28. New Jersey 


Yes 


No 


County 


No 


Com. of 
Ed. 


1-3 


No 


29. New Mexico 


Yes 


No 


May have 
Joint 


No 


Co. Supt. 


10-30 


Yes 


30. New York 


No 


No 


(Discontinued in 1911) 








31. No. Carolina... 


Yes 


No 


One to 4 
Counties 


No 


Supt. and 
Inst. Bd. 


10 


Yes 


32. North Dakota. . 


Yes 


Yes 


One Co. 


No 


Co. Supt. & 
State Supt. 


5 


Yes 


33. Ohio 


Yes 


Irregular 


One Co. 


No 


County Bd. 


5 


Yes 






34. Oklahoma 


No 


No 


(Discontinu 


ed in 1917) 










Yes 


Yes — at 
least 3 — 
various 
part of Co. 


1 or more 
Coimties 


No 


Co. Supt. 


3 


Yes 






36. Pennsylvania . . . 


Yes 


Yes, but 
not legal 


County 


No 


Co. Supt. 


5 


Co.— 

Yes 
City- 
No 


37. Rhode Island... 


Yes 


Yes 


Joint — sev- 
eral Towns 


No 


Superinten- 
dent school 
Officers As- 
sociation, 
etc 


1-3 
Varies 


No 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



141 



County Teachers' Institutes 



Which, If Any 
Groups of Teach- 
ers are Excused 
from Att.? 


Are Teach- 
ers Paid 
for At- 
tendance? 


How Much? 


Penalty for 
Non-Att.? 


Nature of 
Penalty? 


How Fi- 
nanced? 


Teachers' 
Fees 




8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 






No 




Yes 


License Re- 
voked 


License & Ex- 
am. Feed 


$2.00 


25 


— given per 






Control of State 


Yes 


Transpor- 
tation ;nd 
Salary 


Yes 


No Salary 


State $500. 
Dist. $250. 




■'fi 


Supt. 






Voluntary 


No 




No 




Trust Fd. 




77 










N 


Yes 


Salary 


Yes 


No Salary 


State Entirely 




?8 










No 




Yes 


Loss of Cert. 


Co. not more 
$100 


$2.00 


29 


mer Schools 




















30 




No 




Yes — May 


Can't Teach 


St. pays In- 
structors — Co. 
"Expenses" 


$200-$250 


31 








High School Spe- 
cial Dist. 


Yes 


Salary 


Yes 


May Revoke 
Certificate 


State $100. 


$1.00 


32 


Voluntary 


Yes 


Salary $2}^ 
per Day 


No 




Co. Aid 


$1.00 


33 




















34 


None 


Yes 


Salary 


Yes 


Certificate 
voked 


Co.— $150 to 
$400 




^5 






None 


Yes 


$4 . 00 per 
day 


Yes 


$4 . 00 per da. 


Co. not less 
than $100 nor 
more $200. 


$l-$4 


36 


Voluntary 


Yes 


Salary 


No 




State Aid $500 
whole St. 




37 









142 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



County Teachers' Institutes 





Insti- 
tute 
Still 

Held? 


Local 

Institute 

Also? 


Area 
Covered 


Does Law 
Specify 
Time for 
Holding 
Institute? 


Who Deter- 
mines Time 
if not Speci- 
fied by Law? 


Length of 

Institute? 

(Days) 


Must it 
be Held 
on Con- 
secutive 
Days? 


State 


1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


38. South Carolina . . 


Few 


No 


One Co. 


No 


Co. Supt. 


2-3 


Yes 


39. South Dokota... 


Yes 


No 


Joint 


No 


State Supt. 
& Co. Supt. 


2-3 


Yes 


40. Tennessee 


Few 


No 


One Co. 


No 


Co. Supt. 


5-10 


No 


41. Texas 


Yes 


Yes 


One Co. or 
Sev. Cities 


Yes 


Law 


5 


Co.— 




Yes Ci- 
ty—No 


42. Utah 


Yes 


Yes 


Joint — Co. 
& Local 


No 


Co. Supt. 


2-10 


No 








No 




























44. Virginia 


Yes 


Occasional- 

ly 


One Co. 


No 


Div. Supt. 


2-3 


No 


45. Washington 


Yes 


No 


1 or more 
Counties 


No 


Co. Supt. 


5 


3 must 
be 


46. West Virginia... 


Yes 


Yes 


1 or more 
Counties 


No 


State Supt. 
& Co. Supt. 


5 


Yes 


47. Wisconsin 


Yes in 
Coun- 
ties De- 
signated 
by 
State 
Supt. 


Yes 


County 


No 


State Supt. 
& Bd. of 
Normal 
School Re- 
gents 


2-10 


Yes 


48. Wyoming 


Yes 




Co.— 2 or 
more Cos. 
may have 
Joint 


No 


Co. Supt. 


4-8 









COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



143 



County Teachers' Institutes 



Which, If Any 
Groups of Teach- 
ers are Excused 
faom Att.? 


Are Teach- 
ers Paid 
for At- 
tendance? 


How Much? 


Penalty for 
Non-Att.? 


Nature of 
Penalty? 


How Finan- 
ced? 


Teachers 
Fees 




8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 






Optional 
withBoard 


Expenses 


No 




Co. Aid 




^8 










None except 


Yes 


Salary 


Yes 


License Co. 
or Cr. Lost 


Aid up to 
$150 




,^Q 


City & H. S. 








No 




Yes 


Cert. Void 


State Inst. Fd. 


SOcto$l. 


40 








None 


Yes 


Salary 


Yes 


Certificate 
Cancelled 


County 


$1.00 


41 












Co. Bd. $100 




4? 






























4.^ 




















Yes 


Salary 


Yes 


No Salary 


Co. Aid 




44 










Yes 


Salary 


Yes 


Loss of Cert. 


Co. $200. Supt. 
Record 




4S 








Those Att. Sum- 
mer Sessions 


Yes 


$2.50 per 
day 


Yes 


Not Allowed 
to Teach 


For entire State 
$10,000 


$1.25 


46 




No 


None 


No 


None 


State Aid for 
all Counties, 
$9,000 




47 








Supt. may ex- 
empt for good 
reason 


Yes 


Salary 


Yes 


Certificate 
Revoked 


Co. Com. 




48 







144 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

WHERE INSTITUTE IS HELD 
According to the best available information some form of Institute 
is held in 42 states, though Miss Lommen^ gives the number as 44. 
The following states have abolished the Institute: New York, 
Missouri, Delaware, Oklahoma, and Vermont, while Florida holds a 
six weeks' Normal Institute and can hardly be included. Of the 42 
states that still hold some form of institute six hold only a few. 
These states are, Montana where it is being displaced by the summer 
school; Maryland where two- thirds of the counties have summer 
schools; Mississippi and South Carolina; Kentucky, where they are 
largely local and non-compulsory. Two of the states. North Caro- 
lina and Nevada have institutes every other year. There are, 
therefore, only 35 states that still observe the custom of holding 
regularly some type of teachers' institute, namely of the county unit 
type. 

Institute — Permissive and Otherwise 
In seven of the 35 states that hold the institute either as a county 
or modified county plan, the institute is either permissive or so 
modified that they cannot, strictly speaking, be said to be regularly 
held. The data at this date seems to indicate that in at least 28 
to 30 states the institute still has a legal basis for its maintenance. 
This also confirms the study already quoted. Colorado has no 
regular county institute, but a Normal Institute for two weeks, 
the state being divided into 13 districts for the purpose; Connecticut 
has a one day "teachers' meeting" — not a typical institute; Maine 
has what may be called County Associations, one or two days, but 
fully legalized; Massachusetts, whenever 25 or more teachers in one or 
more contiguous towns request it, authorize an institute for one to 
five days; Nevada holds her institute every other year; Ohio may 
have one if 30 or more teachers ask for it; Wisconsin gives the State 
Superintendent discretion in designating which counties shall have 
an institute — usually those without the benefits of Normal School 
location. 

Hence, we may say that there has been since 1910^ a strong 
tendency either to abolish the typical county institute or so modify 
it that to-day not more than 28 states have typical institutes with a 
legal basis for its compulsory annual maintenance. Geographically, 

5 Lommen, G. — "The Institute as an Agency, etc." — Op. Cit. 
« Ruediger— Op. Cit. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 145 

of the 28 states that require compulsory attendance, 15 are Western 
States, 10 Southern and 3, including Pennsylvania, Eastern. It 
will thus be seen that the New England and Middle Atlantic States 
have practically discontinued the County Institute as such. The 
advent of summer schools and increased facilities for the training of 
teachers have brought this about. 

Local Institutes 
In addition to the usual type of county institute, local or district 
institutes are found in 20 states, all except two of which also have the 
county institute. In all but a few of these states, the local institutes 
have legal sanction, either obligatory or permissive. In Pennsylvania 
many districts hold local institutes, but there is no legal basis for 
them. In Massachusetts, and Rhode Island they are permissive 
and may receive some state aid; in Indiana they must be held one 
Saturday in each month; in Louisiana the parish superintendent must 
hold one one day each month. The teachers are paid $2.00 a day 
and mileage, with one day's salary forfeited for non-attendance. 
In Utah a certain number of local institutes may be the equivalent 
of the county institute. In Kentucky a local institute must be 
held in each magisterial district, while in Nevada the district institute 
is held in each county each alternate year with the regular "super- 
visional" institute. In Oregon at least three must be held in each 
county. Whether or not local institutes, if properly organized with 
definite educational functions, can provoke educational sentiment 
in the immediate community and at the same time be some agency 
to promote professional zeal, solidarity, and growth, is without the 
province of this investigation, though their possibilities are worthy 
of consideration. 

Unit of Administration — Territory Covered 
In the 43 states where some type of institute is still held, 16 are 
of the strictly county unit type. In 25 the law permits joint institutes 
of two or more counties, usually contiguous counties. Two states, 
Nevada and Michigan hold state institutes. The law, therefore, 
permits in many states joint institutes, in several states joint district 
or town institutes. While this permission is evident, the writer has 
no means of stating to what extent joint institutes are actually held. 
That this permission, if used, could be used to improve the institute 
program is self evident, particularly in such counties with small 
groups of teachers and scant financial resources. 



146 COTUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

In one state, Nevada, an overlapping or "relay" program was 
used in 1921 in the five supervisional institutes. This plan provided 
that the corps of speaker progressed in order from one institute to 
the other. This is the Chautauqua scheme of scheduling speakers. 
By a plan of the overlapping dates this is possible. When the official 
speakers are under the control of one authority, this is possible. 
In a state like Penna. with 66 counties to provide for, the entire 
institute program could be run off in three or four months. By a 
zoning or regional scheme, this time could be reduced considerably. 

Joint institutes among the counties in Penna. have no legal basis, 
though the district or city joint institutes are held in many places. 
In the latter type of institutes, there seems to be no definite legal 
basis, but neither is there any legal prohibition. 

Duration of Institutes 

The duration of institutes in the 43 states when still held varies 
very much from one day in Connecticut to six weeks in Michigan. 
However, when an institute meets more than five days it ceases to be 
an institute, in the commonly accepted meaning of the term. Sum- 
marizing the data we find that in 17 states institutes meet less 
than 5 days; 5 days in 15 states; 10 days in 4 states, and in 7 the 
time varies above 5 days to 6 weeks. In three states institutes 
meet from one to three days, in three others three days. The three 
day period seems to be increasing as the length of time in which 
institutes are held. 

Consecutive or Non-Consecutive Days 

In 22 states the institutes must meet on successive days; in 17 
they do not. In other states they either meet one or two days, or 
information is lacking. 

Number in Legal Area 

As a general rule only one institute meets in the legal unit or area; 
in 10 states the number varies from one to three, in the county or 
district as legalized. 

Compulsory Attendance 

In the maitter of compulsory attendance a great deal of variety 
and exceptions are found. In a general way we find that in 19 
states no groups of teachers are excused from attendance; in 3 
states city teachers may be excused; in 7 states teachers who are 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 147 

attending or have attended summer schools within a certain period 
are excused; in 3 states teachers may be excused by the County 
Superintendent for good reasons; in 7 states attendance is voluntary; 
in 1 state teachers from graded schools, in 1 experienced teachers, 
while in 3 high school teachers are excused. In 1 state high school 
graduates may be excused. The tendency is, however, to accept sum- 
mer school attendance in lieu of institute attendance. A good 
example of this practice is Maryland. 

Penalty for N on- Attendance 

In 26 states teachers are penalized in some way or other for non- 
attendance unless excused; in 2 they may be penalized; in 9 states 
there is no penalty attached. Information for other 6 states is 
incomplete. 

In 9 states the penalty for non-attendance is loss of salary; in 
7 certificate is forfeited; in 2 credits for certificate are lost; in 9 
the license is revoked; in 2 teachers can't teach if absent from insti- 
tute; in 1 the contract is cancelled. In one state the penalty is $2; 
in another the penalty is two days' salary, while in Pennsylvania 
teacher forfeits salary and is fined $4.00 for each day's absence. 
The fine in Pennsylvania is seldom, if ever, inflicted. Information 
for 11 states is incomplete. 

Pay for Attendance 

In 28 states teachers are paid for attending institutes; in 11 
they are not; in 4 they may be. In 25 states the regular salary 
continues; in Mississippi the pay is from $5 to $10; in one state 
pay is $2.50 if school is not in session; in 5 states expenses are paid; 
in Pennsylvania the allowance is $4.00 a day, but Institute time 
cannot be counted as time taught. 

Financing the Institute 

In 19 states institutes are supported by county aid which varies 
considerably; in 21 by state aid; 3 have combination of the two plans; 
in 5 they have fees and examination registration fee; in 1 state (N. H.) 
there is an institute fund from the proceeds of land sales. In 21 
states they charge an enrollment fee to teachers. In some it is from 
25 cents to 50 cents; in others from $1 to $4. The methods of county 
and state aid are too varying to summarize, but they can be seen from 
the table. 



148 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

Attitudes of the Departments 

Thirty-nine departments answered the inquiry as to whether or 
not the institute should be aboKshed. Twenty-nine (29) said No; 
4 said Yes; 7 did not answer; 6 do not have any. In reply whether 
the state should aid summer schools in preference to county institutes, 
15 said yes; 6 no; 5 both. Twenty-two did not answer. 

Aims or Functions 

No serious attempt was made in this investigation to determine 
thru the State Departments of Public Instruction their ranking of 
certain functions of institutes. The information received, however, 
seems to justify the ranking of aims by these departments as given in 
Chapter II on "Aims" — page 20, as follows: 

1. Methods of Instruction. 

2. Inspirational or professional. 

3. Discussion School Problems. 

4. Rural Education. 

Lommen^ thus gives the comparative ratings of institute functions: 

1. To give instructions in methods of teaching. 

2. To inspire professional idealism. 

3. To develop esprit de corps. 

4. To provide local administrative and supervisory forces with opportunity to 
promote and unify local plans for the educational program of the year. 

5. To acquaint local teaching body with the progressive tendencies in elementary 
education as shown by the scientific investigation of educational leaders. 

6. To give instruction in subject matter. 

There seems to be a close agreement in these evaluations, with those 
of the present study. 

^Lommen, G. — Journal of Rural Education — Oct. 1921, p. 67. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Summary — (a) Findings 

(b) What Shall Be Done? 

(a) FINDINGS 
This, the concluding chapter, must be viewed in the light of the 
purpose of the study as expressed in the Introduction — "The present 
study is an attempt to determine the eflSciency of County Teachers' 
Institutes in Pennsylvania." The status of institutes has been stressed 
thruout in order to present adequate facts as to origins, aims and 
ideals, organization, programs and personnel, improvement of 
teachers in service, its influence on the public, costs, and the general 
practice in states where institutes still exist. In no other way than by 
presenting such facts as this investigation offers, ought judgment be 
passed. At the same time the experience and judgment of those who 
should know, cannot be discounted. Out of this judgment and 
opinion, and the facts as revealed, we can select the outstanding 
findings. 

Summary of Important Findings 

1. There is a real institute problem as evidenced by the wide 
divergence of judgment as to the value and function of the institute, 
both past and present. (Chapter I and Introduction.) 

2. Institutes had their origin in the storm and stress of the 
serious emergency thru which public education was passing in the 
early fifties; institutes were of a temporary nature to relieve at the 
time the shortage of adequately trained teachers, and to foster thru 
the stimulating effects of institutes a safe, sane and healthy public 
sentiment for education. (Chapter I — "Historical Origins.") 

3. In Pennsylvania county institutes were the outgrowth of 
teachers' voluntary associations, which brought about the creation of 
the county superintendency in 1854. (Institutes were not legalized 
until 1867.) From the creation of the county superintendency the 
institute became an instrument of great power in the hands of the 
County Superintendent, not only for inculcating professional zeal 
into the body of the teachers, but for influencing the public. (Chapter 
I, "Origins.") 

149 



150 COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 

4. Institutes were voluntary agencies until 1867; during the 
period from 1850 to the period of their legalization (1867) the County 
Superintendency Act (1854) and the Normal School Act (1857) 
were both passed, largely thru the influence of institutes and the 
Pennsylvania State Educational Association. (Chapter I.) 

5. The underlying aim of the institute is, undoubtedly, the 
improvement of teachers in service thru the development of an 
esprit de corps, or professional spirit and zeal. This is the aim held by 
county superintendents. This aim differs from that of teachers and 
many prominent educators. An examination of Chapter II on 
"Aims" shows that superintendents place more stress on "pro- 
fessional inspiration" than teachers, who place more emphasis on 
"Methods of Instruction." The three most important aims of the 
institute as given by 2,300 teachers in their order of ranking are: 
a. Methods of Teaching; b. Professional Inspiration, which can be 
interpreted to be professional spirit; c. Understanding New Move- 
ments in Education. The four most important aims selected by 
county, district superintendents, and supervising principals, as ranked 
in their order are: a. Professional Inspiration; b. Methods of 
Teaching; c. Social Contacts (by Co. Supt.); d. Exchange of Ideas 
(by District Superintendents); e. Impetus to professional reading 
(Co. Supts.); f. Understanding New Movements in Education 
(Supervisory officials.) (Chapter II — "Aims"). 

6. The aims formulated by those not immediately interested in 
Pennsylvania institutes but whose expert judgment should be 
carefully considered are: professional growth of teachers; knowledge 
of changing conceptions of education, or "new movements"; appre- 
ciation of great work teachers are in; real instruction in methods; 
keeping the corps of teachers alive, "breaking down of school and 
district lines." (Chapter II.) 

7. The aims of institutes as formulated thru the ranking of 
certain institute functions by State Departments are: 

a. Methods of teaching; b. professional idealism; c. esprit de 
corps; d. clearing house for State Department of Public Instruction; 
e. scientific progress in education; f. instruction in subject matter. 
(Chapter II — "Aims" and Lommen.) 

8. The formulation of a working aim for institutes is very 
difficult because so much depends on the needs of the groups to be 
reached. Hence, the conclusion that the pnme aim of the institute 
should be the meeting of teachers^ professional needs in a particular 
county or counties or region. (Chapter II.) 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 151 

9. The great majority of county institutes do not seem to be 
organized to carry out any specific aim or purpose. The tendency is 
towards sectional divisions, but very few programs have shown any 
continuous or specific program or goal. The subjects appear rather 
promiscuous and isolated. There seems to be no evidence anywhere 
in the institute organizations that would indicate a forward looking 
program, or an evidence of preparation on the part of teachers for 
the institute. Institutes in Pennsylvania seem to be organized 
more on the convention plan, than on any plan which might indicate 
a definite purpose. (Chapter III — "Organization.") 

10. There seems to be a great waste of time in the institutes. 
(Chapter III.) 

11. Institutes show little evidence that teachers have had any 
share in the preparation of the programs or in its participation. 
(Chapter III.) 

12. There seems to be no correlation between what superintend- 
ents prefer and what they practice in the organization of the insti- 
tute. (Chapter III.) 

13. Institute programs show a predominance of general instruc- 
tional materials over specific; very little content for rural teachers; 
nothing of specific value to high school teachers or principals. (Chap- 
ter IV — "Program and Personnel.") 

14. All the factors contributing to this investigation favor 
departmentalizing the institute into sections at least half the time, 
and general sessions the other half. This proportion of division is 
almost unanimous. (Chapter III.) 

15. Too much of the institute time is occupied by a few instruc- 
tors, usually the so-called "professional lecturer." (Chapter IV.) 

16. There is a scarcity of practical school men on the program. 
Teachers show strong preference for such men as institute instructors. 
(Chapter IV.) 

17. There is very little co-operation between the Normal 
Schools and the county institutes held within their own territory. 
(Chapter IV.) 

18. Teachers and county superintendents rank "professional" 
lecturers differently — fourth by the former, first by the latter; the 
former rank practical school men first; the latter fourth. (Chapter 
IV.) 

19. New movements in education are represented on the 
programs by a very small per cent of assignments, an indication 



152 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

that one of the outstanding aims preferred by teachers and educators 
of prominence is not adequately met. (Chapter IV.) 

20. There is an appreciable increase in the number of institute 
instructors sent by the State Department of Public Instruction, thus 
bringing into the institute its service as a clearing house for the 
Department activities, plans, and ideals. (Chapter IV.) 

21. Programs do not show that much attention has been given to 
the demonstration plan of instruction, nor to conferences. (Chapter 
IV.) 

22. It is very doubtful whether the programs of the rural 
counties are much different from those of non-rural counties. This 
would indicate that the maximum of opportunity for professional 
improvement is not put into the rural county institute program, 
thus losing what is probably the greatest opportunity of the Penna. 
institute — viz. the professional impression that might be made on 
the typically rural county. (Chapter IV.) 

23. The training "in-service" of teachers in Pennsylvania is 
still necessary. This type of service will probably always be needed 
until there is a group of teachers who have reached their "professional 
majority" when they enter the profession or soon thereafter. The 
Pennsylvania program shows the need of training teachers while they 
are in the service in order that they may earn the minimum pro- 
fessional requirements by 1927. (Chapter IV — "Improvement of 
Teachers in Service.") 

24. The question in evaluating the institute as an agency to train 
or improve teachers in service depends on what is meant by this 
training. If by the improvement of teachers in the service is meant 
the acquisition of greater teaching power, the institute must be 
regarded as not thus functioning. If "professional inspiration" is 
the basis of this improvement, or if general instructional work also 
is, then the institute functions as such an agency. The present day 
tendency is to regard evidence of strictly professional growth, of 
greater teaching power, and adherence to a type of professional 
zeal which makes for growth, good criteria for the improvement of 
teachers in service. 

Viewed in this light, we must conclude that in- the very large 
majority of county institutes the contribution towards such improve- 
ment is very low. The judgment of teachers gives a rating of 37.4 
per cent to "professional inspiration" as the most valuable contri- 
bution of the institute, but 9.5 per cent to the discussion of school 
problems, and 30 per cent to "methods of teaching." (Chapter V.) 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 153 

25. District superintendents and supervising principals would 
prefer to make other uses of money now spent on institutes. They 
selected summer schools, professional reading, closer supervision, 
and demonstration classes as all having higher value than county 
institutes as agencies to improve teachers in service. One-third of 
the county superintendents answering the inquiry as to the relative 
value of teachers' institutes and summer sessions, preferred, if it were 
possible, summer schools. (Chapter V.) 

26. Out of 1,376 teachers, 42 per cent preferred the institute as 
an agency in the improvement of teachers, altho 58 per cent pre- 
ferred either two or three day educational meetings, local institutes, 
or summer schools (21.6 per cent). 

27. The judgment of prominent educators quoted seems to be 
that the institute does not contribute to the professional training of 
teachers. (Chapter V.) 

28. The striking facts disclosed by the financial phase of this 
study are: the inequality of opportunities for financing institutes 
in those very counties that need institutes; the large per cent of the 
revenue spent on the lecture and entertainment features of the insti- 
tutes; the payment of 43 per cent of instructional fees to 20 persons 
in 40 counties in one year; less than one-half of the expenditures in 
the county institutes is for other purposes than instruction; the 
disproportionate total expense of county institutes compared with 
what the state used to do for the 13 State Normal Schools; what 
might be done in the real training of teachers with the minimum 
total cost to the public of county teachers' institutes ($750,000). 
(Chapter VI.) 

29. The national survey shows two outstanding features or 
tendencies — that the cost of institutes to the public in any state is 
smaller than in Pennsylvania; that the tendency is for institutes to 
meet from one to three days instead of five. The legal sanction for 
joint institutes, and the large number of states that authorize insti- 
tutes, but do not require them, are other characteristics worthy of 
stressing. (Chapter VII.) 

30. There have been many benefits accruing to teachers from 
institutes in the past. Among these may be mentioned the profes- 
sional impression made; the creation of public sentiment; the agency 
for carrying out state- wide-educational movements; opportunity 
given teachers for social contacts; opportunity given many teachers 
to hear noted men and women of prominence, etc. (Chapter V.) 



154 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

Conclusion 

We are constrained to say after weighing carefully the facts 
revealed by this study, and especially the deficiencies of the program, 
the high cost of the institute compared with the product, the lack of 
organization to make effective the wisest use of time, the isolated and 
disconnected features of many programs, that the opportunity to 
make the most out of the institute has not been fulfilled; that in 
spite of the many valuable features of the institutes and their service 
to public education in the past, they are not functioning efficiently 
to-day as agencies in the practical in-service and after-training of 
teachers. We believe, therefore, that the facts justify the con- 
clusion that according to the accepted principles of efficiency, 
county teachers' institutes in Pennsylvania are, in a large measure, 
and in many counties, inefficient. 

(jb) WHAT SHALL BE DONE? 

There is no presumption in this study to solve, what is admittedly, 
a problem. What shall be done with teachers' institute in Pennsyl- 
vania? Facts bearing on the historical and contemporary ideals and 
purposes of institutes have been gathered, presented, and wherever 
possible, interpreted. No one with a mind open to truth and con- 
viction as revealed by the facts can boldly generalize by challenging 
the usefulness of teachers' institutes without some modifications. 
That institutes have had much value in the past, that they might 
have more real value at present than they do, cannot be doubted. 
After all, the real issue that cannot be avoided is, ''Do county 
institutes have sufficient productive returns on the investment, 
direct and indirect, to warrant their continuance?" 

Constructive Suggestions 

It seems to the writer that in view of the conclusion that insti- 
tutes in Pennsylvania as at present organized and managed are 
generally inefficient, five lines of action are possible. These are 
submitted in the light of the experience in this state and practices 
as found in other states. 

These five lines of possible action are: 

1. Abolish county institutes entirely. 

2. Continue them as present, but plan for their improvement. 

3. Curtail their time and improve them. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 155 

4. Make them permissive for optional periods and counties or 

districts. 

5. Legalize Teachers' Associations. 
We shall consider each briefly. 

/. Abolish Them 

The investigation has revealed no strong sentiment among super- 
intendents or teachers for their absolute discontinuance. Very few 
of the prominent educators who have expressed their views have 
given as their judgment that the county institute should be abolished. 
Those who have advocated its discontinuance, have invariably no 
substitute for it. Dr. Snedden, formerly Commissioner of Education 
in Massachusetts and an authority on all forms of public educational 
administration has well presented the objections to their discon- 
tinuance now:^ 

I should consider it very ill-advised in the present juncture of American Educa- 
tion to recommend lessening of the institute. Rather should we contend for an im- 
provement in its quality. 

Dr. Snedden recommends that there be an institute before the open- 
ing of school and one after the closing of the schools, as periods for 
"professional preparation and review."^ We can, therefore, acquiesce 
in Dr. Snedden's observation that the institute be continued at 
present, especially in view of the educational renaissance in Penn- 
sylvania when much missionary work for public enlightenment and 
professional zeal will be necessary for the educational program under 
way. 

At the same time it cannot be expected that institutes should be 
allowed to continue at such great costs to school districts unless 
there is shown an immediate and decided improvement all around. 
At this point it may be sufficiently instructive to call attention to what 
the Department of Education of New York State said in 1912 after 
institutes were abolished in that state: 

When progression ceases, deterioration sets in. The institutes seem to have 
reached the limit of their efi&ciency and the time is ripe to take a step forward in the 
matter of helping and stimulating teachers. . . . We say that a teacher should 
not do for her pupils what they can easily do for themselves. It is equally true that 
the states should not do for the teachers what they can do for themselves. 

* Excerpt from letter to inquiry. 

* Lommen, G., Oct. Number Journal of Education, op. cit. 



156 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

Continuing, the statement gives expression to the feeling that 

if teachers get together and take an active interest in their associations, they will 
greatly be strengthened thereby. It is confidently predicted that the discontinuance 
of institutes will be followed by greater activity on the part of teachers' associations 
and that they will greatly increase in efl&ciency. 

Were institutes to be abolished in Pennsylvania, the Pennsyl- 
vania State Educational Association would undoubtedly provide 
for the organization of county branches of the association, voluntary 
in their character, but withal worthy substitutes for teachers to 
become affiliated with. 

2. Continue Them as at Present, but Improve Them 

This proposition has already been made and discussed somew:hat 
under 1. If it is concluded to continue institutes, it is naturally a 
corollary to insist that they should be improved in view of their 
present inefficiency. Should they be continued as at present, which 
means five days? There can be no doubt of their needed improve- 
ment, but in view of the tendency among the 43 states that still 
maintain some type of institute to cut down the duration of the 
institute, it would be wise to hold the county institute for a period 
not longer than three days. At present 17 states hold the institute 
less than five days; 15 five days; 4 ten days; 7 states it varies above 
ten days, usually a summer school type of institute. 

Another added reason why the county institute should be held 
for not more than three days is the fact that at present too much 
time is wasted and that by proper program making at least 40 per cent 
of the time and expense can be saved without decreasing the efficiency 
of the institute. We must not forget that American psychology is 
opposed to long meetings; the point of saturation is reached early. 
A three day institute with dash, enthusiasm, and a well organized 
program will hold a body of teachers better. Since at present 
one day is literally wasted, improved transportation facilities make 
this waste unnecessary. 

3. Curtail their Ttme and Improve Them 

It seems logical to propose that in view of the inefficiency and 
wastefulness pointed out in the study, that a shorter institute will 
answer the purpose as well as the five day session, which, really, 
means only four days. The improvements that would be necessary 
in the five day institute would also be necessary in a three day insti- 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 157 

tute. In the present five day institute there are only three days 
devoted to sectional meetings. This would also be possible in the 
three day institute. This shorter institute will save school districts 
40 per cent in the compensation paid teachers. For years to come 
many teachers who probably might need the institute good, bad, 
or indififerent, will attend summer schools; many teachers from 
our rural schools who formerly depended on the institute will now be 
compelled to attend summer or normal school in order to qualify. 
This is a further reason for cutting the number of days to three. 

4. Make Them Permissive for Optional Periods 

The fourth plan has all the virtues of the present system, with 
none of the objections. A strong argument for the county institute 
has been its appeal to the rural school teacher, in spite of the plain 
facts revealed in the study that the ordinary institute program has 
had nothing in it for the general body of rural school teachers. 
(See Chapter IV — "Program.") This plan would make the county 
institute permissive in those counties where the county superintend- 
ent with the approval of the Department of Public Instruction 
thinks that it is necessary. It is well known that many counties 
in the state, where there are thickly settled urban communities, and 
of easy access to many educational facilities, where the schools 
may be so organized that close supervision takes the place of the 
institute and other "in service" training agencies, the institute can 
be displaced by other agencies. The length of time for holding the 
institute could also be made permissive, say two or three days, either 
consecutively or on non-consecutive days. 

5. A Possible Fifth Plan — Legalize Teachers^ Associations 

No matter what happens to the institute, there should be in 
every county some organization that will make for professional 
solidarity and that will promote professional spirit. The assurance 
of such aims would not require a three day meeting, but rather 
several one day meetings during the year. The fifth plan would 
legalize county educational associations so that teachers would be 
regarded as members just as they are considered as enrolled members 
of the institute. The State Educational Association would in this 
way become a tremendously powerful instrument with local repre- 
sentative associations in every county. This raises the question of 
voluntary teachers' associations vs. an association or organization 



158 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

that has a legal basis such as the institute, which is an instrument 
in the hands of the state. The legalized teachers' association idea 
is not new. Maine has county associations provided by and sup- 
ported by law. No one can find objections to any method sanctioned 
by the State to compel the improvement of its servants. The 
passage of every certification law is a similar procedure. 

Possible Ways of Improving the Institute 

No matter which of these five plans is followed, unless the insti- 
tute is abolished, improvements should be made. Accordingly a 
number of suggestive proposals are made for its possible improve- 
ment, in addition to curtailing its duration. These are: 

1. The state should adopt an institute policy whereby the 
institute work of the state will be given unity and direction. This 
does not mean centralized control nor a system of institutes under 
the direction of conductors. It does mean that somebody will be 
charged with the responsibility of planning the institutes and of 
administering them thru the authority and leadership of the county 
superintendent. 

2. All institute programs should be definitely planned and sched- 
uled and placed in the hands of teachers a sufficient time in advance 
of the institute. 

3. The institute program should stress new and controlling 
movements in education, problems of educational policy, state and 
local and national, and some specific school room problems. The 
so-called "inspirational" address should be reduced to a proper 
number. 

4. The programs should have unity and purpose with past 
programs, and if possible, with future plans. 

5. Provisions should be made in the institute for discussions of 
work done in previous institutes; also plans laid out for follow-up 
work and reports. 

6. The institute should encourage more round table conference 
discussions. Teachers should be encouraged to come with questions 
that might be answered by their fellow workers or by the instructors. 

7. The institute should be made a place where discussions will be 
fostered and where reports of work assigned will be given. 

8. Preliminary arrangements should be made to conduct 
Demonstration classes. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 159 

9. Reports by teachers on any constructive piece of work done 
during the year. 

10. Joint institutes ought to be organized where the financial 
resources are not sufficient. Regional institutes with normal school 
areas as their boundaries might be organized, at the same time 
using the normal school personnel for instructional purposes. 

11. There should be in the Department of Public Instruction 
some method of assisting in securing instructional talent for institutes. 
The securing of satisfactory talent is one of the biggest problems 
connected with the institute. 

12. Supervision of the county institutes by expert authorities is 
necessary. The state has never exercised any such powers because the 
law does not require it. Lommen points out in the survey she made 
thru the State Departments this pertinent reflection: 

Intelligent and co-operative supervision could do much to obviate the current 
criticisms of inadaptability of instruction, failure to meet local needs, lack of organiza- 
tion, and the absence of professional growth.* 

13. An attempt should be made to encourage units of work on 
the extension basis thru district institutes, carrying credit in terms of 
semester hours. This may also be feasible in the county institute. 

14. High school teachers should be allowed either to attend 
institutes where strong programs can be organized for large numbers 
of high school teachers, or allowed to visit schools. In many counties 
the number of high school teachers is too small to offer them specific 
work. This is also true of vocational teachers. 

15. In districts where separate institutes are held, the teachers 
could readily contribute their institute compensation to the treasury 
as an adequate fund for organizing a strong institute. 

Many other changes will suggest themselves from the main chapters 
of the study. 

* Lommen, op. cit. 



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Training of Teachers" 1912. 
Report of Department of Public Education, New York, Bulletin, July 15, 1908. 
RuEDiGER, W. C. Agencies for the Improvement of Teachers in Service, U. S, 

Bureau of Education Bulletin No. 3, 1911. 
RuEDiGER, W. C. "Spirit of the Teaching Corps," School and Society, Jan. 26, 

1918. 
RuEDiGER, W. C. "Improvement of Teachers," Schoolmen's Week Proceedings, 

1917, University of Pennsylvania. 
Schoolmen's Week Proceedings, University of Penna., 1917, 1918, 1919. 
Seerley, H. C. "Practical Value of the Institute System" Educational Review, 

Nov. 1908. 
Shaw, R. C. "The Annual Institute," Penna. School Journal, Aug. 1910. 
Smart. Circular of Information on Institutes, U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular 

No. 2, 1885. 
Snedden, D. "Professional Improvement of Teachers Through Organization," 

School and Society, Nov. 8, 1919. 
Updegraff, H. "Training of Teachers in Service," Proceedings of the Department of 

Superintendence, N.E.A., 1911. 
U. S. Bureau of Education — Circular of Information No. 2, 1885. 

Bulletin No. 3, 1911 — Agencies in Improvement of Teachers. 

Bulletin No. 47, 1915 — Relating to State Laws on Education. 

Bulletin No. 31, 1919— Report on Summer Schools in 1918. 

Bulletin No. 30, 1920— State Laws Relating to Education. 

Bulletin by King (In Press June 1922). 
Wickersham, J. P. History of Education in Pennsylvania. 



A 

APPENDIX TO STUDY ON INSTITUTE 
STUDY ON "THE STATUS OF COUNTY TEACHERS' INSTITUTES" 



Conducted under direction of the Graduate School, University of Pa. 



Please answer promptly and return to Carmon Ross, Doylestown, Pa., in stamped envelope enclosed. 
This material will be used in a preliminary report on Teachers' Institutes at Schoolmen's Week, April 
10-12, 1919. 

1. If it were within your power to control all factors, for the best interests of your schools, check in blank 
spaces which of the following times you would select for holding your county institute: 



a Before the opening of the schools. 

b After the opening of your schools. 

c One week before opening of schools. 

g. Some other time. (State it) 



d Two weeks before opening of schools. 

e One month after opening of schooK 

f Two months after opening of schools. 



162 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 
2. Give reasons for the time preferred above: 



3. If your institute is not held at time checked in question 1, please give reasons: 



4. If you could control all the factors determining the kind of institute you would have, check in blaiik 
spaces below one of the types you would select for the best interests of your schools: 

a General Sections or Sessions — all teachers meeting together all the time. 

b Half General and Half Sectional — one half-day aU teachers meeting together, one-half day 

teachers meeting in two or more groups or sections. 

c All Departmental — all teachers meeting in small groups, both morning and afternoon, i.e., no 

General Sessions at all. 

d Any Other Kind. (Please indicate and describe definitely) 



S. Give reasons for the form of organization checked in question above: 



6. Check in blank space the form of organization mentioned in question 4 which you have: 

a General Sessions I c All Departmental. 

b Half General and Half Sectional 1 1 d Any other kind — indicate 



7. a. Give reasons for your present form of organization: 



b. Do you consider your present plan satisfactory? 

8. a. How many evening sessions do you have? b. Why do you favor or oppose evening sessions? 



c. Are your teachers in favor of evening sessions? d. The Public . 



9. Check in blank spaces ALL the methods used in your county in making up the institute program: 



a Co. Supt. alone. 

b Co. Supt. and committee of princi- 

cipals. 
c Co. Supt. and committee of prin. and 

teachers. 

d Co. Supt. and committee of directors. 

e Co. Supt. and approved by executive 

committee. 

i. If so, in what way? 



f Any other method. (Please describe 

definitely) 



g. Who makes out the program of departmen- 
tal meetings? 



h. Are rural teachers ever consulted in form- 
ing the program? 



Check any of the following methods of instruction employed in your institute: 

a Lecture Method alone in general sessions. 

b Lecture Method alone in departmental sessions. 

c Demonstration Lessons in gtjneral sessions. 

d Demonstration Lessons in departmental sessions. 

e Lecture and Discussions in general sessions. 

f Lecture and Discussions in departmental sessions. 

g Any other method of instruction. (Please describe definitely) 



11. Instructors used and their relative merits: 

In left column check those used. In right hand column use numerals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, for rank. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 



163 



a. 


Professional institute lecturers. 




b. 


Public Men. 




c. 


Normal School Teachers. 




d. 


Public School Men not from your own county. 




e. 


Successful Teachers in Your Own County — Town. 




f. 


Successful Teachers in Your Own County — Rural. 




g- 






h. 


Business Men. 




i. 







12. a. Does your institute make special provisions for the inexperienced teacher? If so, state in 

what way: 



b. Special provision for Grade Teachers? If so , state in what way : 

c. Special provision for the rural one room teacher? If so, in what way? . 



d. Special provision for high school teachers? If so, in what way? . 



13. Do you think that the town or borough teachers who have local supervision, could do without the 

institute? Give reason for answer: 

14. Give rank to five of the following possible ways in which the institute may help teachers. (Use 

numerals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for highest value, next to the highest, etc., respectively.) 



a Knowledge of subject matter 

b Methods of teaching 

c Professional inspiration 

d Better discipline in rural schools 



f Social contacts for teachers 

g Exchange of experiences and ideas 

among teachers 

h Means of community uplift thru 

teachers 

i Discussion of immediate school prob- 
lems 

j Opportunity for supt. to meet teach- 
ers for conferences on school problems 



e Wider professional reading by teach- 
ers 

15. To what degree do you and your assistants notice improvement among your teachers after the county 

institute? (Check which degree in blank spaces to the left.) 
a None: b Little: c Medium. d Much. 

16. Which of the following in your opinion has the greater value for teachers? (Check which one in 

blank space to the left.) 
a County Institute, b Local Institute, c Other Educational Meetings 

during year. 
b Conferences with groups of teachers either before the opening of school or after. 

17. Should the institute be held for more than five (5) consecutive days? Please give reason 

for either answer: 



18. Check whether or not you prefer holding the county institute as now on five consecutive days? 
a. Yes ; b. No ; c. Reason for either answer: 



164 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

19. a. If your county has held its institute this school year on 5 Saturdays, or on five non-consecutive 
days, state the advantages or disadvantages of the plan: 



b. What per ct. of teachers have attended on Saturdays? 

c. Are transportation facilities in your county to place of meeting very good, good, or poor? . 

a. Is there any reason why county institutes as at present conducted should be abolished? . 

b. If there is, indicate reasons: 



If in favor of abolishing the institute as at present conducted, what would you suggest as a good sub- 
stitute, if any? 



22. If it were legally, financially, and otherwise possible, would you substitute summer session work for 

teachers in Normal School or College for the institute? 

23. a. Enrollment fee in your institute b. Extra fee, if any, for evening course tickets. . . . 

24. What do you regard as the aim or purpose of institutes as at present organized and held? 



Questionnaire filled out by Supt County 

(On back page give any suggestion, problem or peculiar form of organization you have in your institute) 



STATUS OF TEACHERS' INSTITUTES 
(Please do not fill out until questions are explained) 



1. Teacher, principal or supt.? Are you a city, town, or rural t eacher? 

2. Number of institutes attended before this? Teacher's certificate held 

3. Check in blank space time preferred for holding institutes: 

a Before opening of schools. I ] c. How many weeks before? 

b After opening of schools. 1 1 d. How many weeks after? 

4. Reason for time preferred: 

5. Check in blank space type of institute preferred: 

a General sessions, only. || b Half general sessions, half sectional. I| 

c All sectional meetings. 

6. Check in blank space method of instruction preferred: (1 for first choice, 2 for second, 3 for third.) 
a Lecture method. |1 b Demonstration method. |1 c Conferences and dis- 
cussions. 

d Any other method. (Please indicate) : 

7. Check in blank spaces three kinds of instructors preferred, using numeral 1 for first choice, 2 for second 

3 for third: 

a Public men. 1 1 c College teachers. 1 1 e Professional lecturers. 

b Practical school men. [| d Normal school teachers || f Successful local teachers. 

8. Do you favor evening sessions? If so, how many of each of the following? 

a Serious lectures. b Light lectures. c Entertainments. 

9. Check in blank spaces the three most valuable contributions to the teacher actually made by the in- 

stitute, using numeral 1 for first most valuable contribution, 2 for second, 3 for third. 
(If there is no contribution, mark with X here: No contribution.) 



a Knowledge subject matter. 

b Methods of teaching. 

c Professional inspiration. 

d Conference with County Superinten 

dent. 



e Exchange of ideas among teachers. 

f Discussion of immediate school prob- 
lems. 

g Social contacts for teachers. 

h (Name any other and give value) : 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 165 

Mark in blank space which of the following you prefer, if a choice on your part were possible: {Be sure 

to answer this.) (Use 1 for first choice, 2 for second, 3 for third.) 

a Institutes as at present generally organized and conducted. 

b Two or three day educational meetings held in the county or in the district, that stress big 

educational movements, and make for professional spirit. 

c Well organized system of local institutes, financed by school boards. 

d Summer School sessions, four to six weeks, tuition free, attendance voluntary, but credit 

given toward advancement 
e. Give any other preference or suggestion: 

Mark 1 for first choice, 2 for second, of type of instruction material preferred in day sessions: 
a .... Pedagogical. || b .... Inspirational. || c. .. .Entertainment. || d .... Informational. 
Mark 1 for what you think sliould be the most valuable feature of the institute, 2 for second, 3 for 

third: 



a Methods of teaching. 

b Development of professional spirit. 

c Knowledge of subject matter. 



d Exchange of ideas among teachers. 

e Social contacts " " 

f Explanation of new movements in 

education. 

g Discussion of immediate school problems. 

(Study conducted by Carmon Ross, Doylestown, Pa.) 

C— Part 1 
STATUS OF TEACHERS' INSTITUTES— SPECIFIC QUESTIONS 

Questionnaire for City and Dist. Supts. and Supv. Principals. 

1. Check in blank spaces your judgment as to the DEGREE that the Institute really functions as an 

AGENCY to IMPROVE teachers in service. 
a Much b Little c None 

2. If you think that it really functions as an agency in the improvement of teachers in service, please 

check in blank spaces in which of the following ways your teachers have shown improvement 
after the annual institute: 

a Methods of teaching d Professional spirit 

b Methods of discipline e Interest in school work 

c Knowledge of subject matter f Impetus for prof, reading. 

g Understanding new movements in education 

Please mention other ways not suggested above in which improvement has been shown by your teachers: 

3. If it were in every way possible and within your power, would you employ or prefer to employ the 

money now being spent by your district to pay teachers' attendance at the Institute for other 
school purposes instead of attendance at Institutes? 
(Please answer YES or NO) Answer 

4. If you should prefer to employ the equivalent Institute money for other school purposes in your own 

system, please check in which of the two following ways you would spend this money. Use 

numeral 1 for first choice, 2 for second: 

a Closer supervision. 

b Additional teacher or teachers either for regular or special subjects. 

c Better salaries for some or all teachers. 

d Better library facilities for teachers and pupils. 

e Sending deserving teachers to summer school by paying all or part of expenses. 

f Paying e.xpenses to selected teachers for observing work in other schools. 

g Securing experienced and successful educators to address teachers on specific problems. 

h Please mention other purposes for which you would employ this money in the improvement 

of teachers in service: 

C— Part 2 

5. Mark 1 for what you think should be the most valuable'feature of the Institute, 2_for second, 3 for 

third: 



166 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

a Methods of teaching d. . . .Exchange of ideas among teachers. 

b Development of Professional spirit e Social contacts among teachers. 

c Knowledge of subject matter f . . . .Explanation of new movements in educa- 

g Discussion of specific school problems tion. 

Please mention any other feature that should be emphasized: 

6. Mark 1 for first choice, 2 for second, of type of instruction preferred in day sessions: 

a Pedagogical b Inspirational c Informational 

7. Check in blank spaces kinds of instructors preferred, using 1 for first choice, 2 for second, 3 for third: 
a Public men. b Practical school men. c College teachers. 

d Normal School Teachers. e Professional lecturers. f Successful 

local teachers. 

8. Name three of the following agencies which you think will improve teachers in service most, marking 

1 for first choice, 2 for second, and 3 for third. 

a Summer school for 4 or 6 weeks. 

b Professional reading. 

c Additional or closer supervision. 

d Correspondence Courses. 

e Teachers' Associations or conventions. 

f Demonstration Classes either in own system or elsewhere. 

g Helping teachers for rural schools. 

h Visiting other schools for observation purposes. 

i County or City Institutes. 

j Local Institutes. 

k . . . . Two or three day educational meetings that stress big movements in education and make for 

professional spirit. 
Name of District No. Teachers 

D 

STATE STATUS OF TEACHERS' INSTITUTES 
State Answered by 



1. Are Teachers' Institutes still held in your state? 

2. If not, when were they discontinued? (County) 

3. Does your state also have a system of local or township institutes? 

4. What area do your "County" Institutes cover — one county, several counties, or part of a county?. . 

5. Does the law specify the time of holding the institute? 

6. Who determines the time, if not specified by law? 

7. When are the institutes usually held? 

8. How many days do the institutes continue? 

9. Must the institute be held on consecutive days? 

10. May it be held on non-consecutive days? 

11. How many institutes a year are held in a county or legal area? 

12. State which group of teachers, if any, may be excused from attending the institutes: 

13. Is attendance on the part of the teachers compulsory? 

14. Are teachers paid for attending? How much? 

Who pays them? • • 

15. Is there a penalty for non-attendance? If so, what? 

16. Please check in blank spaces to left which method or methods is used to finance institutes: 

a State Aid; how much? ; b County Aid; how much? 

; c Fees by teachers; how much? 

17. Should the State aid summer schools rather than Institutes? 

18. Should the State aid Institutes in addition to the summer schools? 

19. To which of the following should Institutes confine themselves: a Methods of Teaching; 

b "Inspirational Lectures"; c Discussion of immediate school problems; d 

Rural Schools. 

20. Do you personally think that the need still exists today for conducting County Institutes? 

21. Should they be abolished? 

On the reverse side of this page, please state what you consider as the present function of County 

Institutes. 



COUNTY teachers' INSTITUTES IN PENNSYLVANIA 167 

£ 

INQUIRY ABOUT COUNTY TEACHERS' INSTITUTES— TO PROMINENT 

EDUCATORS 

1. a. In your experience with County Teachers' Institutes, have you found that they actually contribute 

to the professional training of teachers? 

b. If so, in what ways?: 

2. Do you think that there is still a good reason why the five (S) day County Institute should be con- 
tinued? 

3. Please give briefly your reason why the Institute should be continued or discontinued? 

4. a. In view of the program in this state that teachers after 1927 must have higher professional attain- 
ments, do you think that the money spent on County Institutes in Pa. (at least $750,000 annually), 

might be spent for more effective teacher training purposes? 

b. If so, in what way or ways? 

5. What, in your opinion, should be the highest aim or function of the County Institute? (Briefly, 
please.) 

6. Further suggestions or remarks: 



Answered by 

(Use other side if necessary) 



STATUS OF TEACHERS' INSTITUTES— FOR TEACHERS 

(Follow-up — Two Months After) 

1. Personal information: 

a. Prin., Supv. Prin., or Supt b. Town or country 

c. Grade or high school teacher d. Years experience 

e. Graded or ungraded school 

2. In which of the following ways was the last County Institute valuable? (Use numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 

6, 7 to show order of values.) 

a. Social contacts b. Methods of teaching 

c. Methods of school management d. Information getting 

e. Recreation f . Inspiration g. Any other 

way (Name it.) 

3. Direct values of the last County Institute: 

a. Errors it has helped you to correct: 

b. New methods it has given you in teaching: 

c. Impetus given to you to study or read: 

Professional books — name them: 

Non-Professional books — name them: 

Professional magazines — name them: 

d. Devices, schemes, influences, etc., that Institute has contributed for improving your school work: 

4. State definitely how the last County Institute has interested you in any of the following activities: 

a. Use of school house for community purposes: 

b. Children's health: 

c. Co-operation with the home: 

d. Changes or improvements in course of study: 

e. Community identification by yourself: 



^ 



168 COUNTY teachers' institutes in PENNSYLVANIA 

5. If last Institute was INSPIRING, state in what respects or in what way it was INSPIRING: 

a 

b 



6. Do you think that your school work has improved appreciably since the last County Institute? . 



If it has, state briefly in what way or ways it has improved 

7. Do you feel the need for instruction in the institute for teaching special subjects? 

a. If so, in what subject or subjects? 

b. Suggest methods for giving such instruction 

c. Would you attend such classes if they were free and optional? 

d. Would you attend if held before or after the regular sessions of the Institute? 

8. Did you stay in during the week of the Institute? . 



LBJl'23 



